THE founder of a child abuse charity is outraged at the lack of cooperation from schools about identifying child abuse.

Marilyn Hawes, who founded Enough Abuse UK, hosted a free workshop on Thursday October 13 in Borehamwood for parents to learn about grooming and ways to identify child abuse. But only 15 people attended.

According to the NSPCC one in 20 children are being sexually abused, meaning they are in every school across the country. However Mrs Hawes, whose children were are victims of sexual abuse, is concerned schools in Hertfordshire do not take the danger seriously are not co-operating.

She said: “It is appalling only one school has responded and one independent.

“I cannot understand whether or not it is schools trying to maintain some control over parental knowledge or a general apathy and complacency about this subject.

“If that is the case which I strongly suspect then it is something needing to be reported.

“If you want to protect children it is important you understanding grooming. We all know a child being abused.”

According to Mrs Hawes, schools in Borehamwood have refused to give out the information about thethis meeting to the parents, saying they already know enougheverything.

However, she has continually stressed the meeting is not for the staff of the schools, although they are welcome to attend, but for the parents.

Mrs Hawes contacted the leader of Hertfordshire County Council, Robert Gordon, in March this year asking for their cooperation.

She said in her email: “We have taken this route with other councils and I will send you the evidence and results which are alarming regarding lack of appropriate knowledge before we deliver our training.

“Level 1 to 4 is not prevention it is tick box exercise of how to manage disclosures.”

Mrs Hawes says also said her work focuses on behaviours and in the past employees of Hertfordshire County Council have attended external training where she was and told her they have nothing like this programme of delivery.

She said: “My point again is unless people have seen what we deliver they are not in a position to comment and the evaluations and references say it all really.”

The training sessions have been given in a number of different counties across the country, with many councils and parents recommending the training, but Hertfordshire is the only area where attendance the number of people attending the meetings has been very low.

Richard Roberts, who deals with children’s services at Hertfordshire County Council, said: “Hertfordshire County Council takes safeguarding and prevention of child abuse very seriously as was demonstrated by our recent Ofsted rating of ‘good’.

“We work closely with the police and the Hertfordshire Safeguarding Children Board to ensure the safety of children and young people throughout the county.

“We are grateful for Mrs Hawes for her kind offer and will look into whether it would be a beneficial addition to our existing training.

“Schools have regular training on safeguarding and we provide help to deliver a quality PSHE curriculum which includes education on safe sex and healthy relationships.

“We have also developed, in partnership with school nursing, a toolkit for school staff to increase their confidence in talking to young people about sex and relationships and to provide support to young people who need it.

“To support this, we encourage schools to take part in our Healthy Schools programme and achieve accredited status.

"We have developed a website to tackle child sexual exploitation (CSE) in Hertfordshire, which offers information and advice to young people, parents and professionals.

“In addition, our Youth Connexions service offers workshops in schools to give young people the support they need to make safe, informed decisions about healthy relationships.

"The sessions cover topics including staying safe online, sexting, sexual consent and sexual violence.

“The Joint Child Protection Investigation Team (JCPIT) which has been in operation for four years – a co-located team of social workers and police officers – has also had a positive impact on joint working and timely intervention when disclosures of abuse are made by children.”

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