About

This ‘Not Just a Thought…’ communication model has been co-produced with an inspirational group of 75 children and young people who worked with lots of professionals from the NHS, Social Care, Education, Police and the Charitable Sector.  We created the model to support practitioners, children and young people to work together, to share their thoughts that will help reduce child abuse. In the spirit of keeping the conversation going, the website is open to all and the language used will be child and young person friendly.

Two clear messages came from the children and young people:

• Ask direct questions: If as a practitioner, you are thinking there might be concerns about a child or young person you are seeing, don’t just think it – ask it.
• Think about your presentation: Young people want you to smile at them, to be friendly, to let them know you are ready to hear the thoughts they might want to share.

The summary below produced by the young people involved in all stages of the project sums up their aims perfectly:

“We intend to provide advice and support for all young people who desire, or are in need of it. Together we have created a website, variety of short films and augmented reality, to highlight these issues. We strongly feel that this project will be extremely beneficial and successful.   Moreover, whether any of these issues relate to you or not, we want you to know overcoming these obstacles is ‘NOT just a thought’…”

Our process

What we did first

• We watched GW Theatre’s Play “Somebody’s Sister, Somebody’s daughter” and discussed the issues that it raised with children, young people, parents, and practitioners.
• We held consultation events in Manchester and Dorset, with multidisciplinary practitioners and examined the strength and weaknesses of 100’s of current tool which aim to identify those at risk of child sexual exploitation.
• We consulted with young people who had survived child sexual abuse and exploitation. We examined how they would design a new mode of communication and engagement if given a blank piece of paper.

What we did next

• Workshop consultations with young people having equal status to the adults to develop the concept of the project with out project artist Beci Ward capturing their ideas onto paper. Ideas were a plenty and the young people created the project name.
• Young people lead the development of the project. They are a talented group and their knowledge is invaluable. They engaged with practitioners to develop core questions, web designers, arts and media specialists and computer engineers.
• Young people then led consultations with multidisciplinary practitioners to introduce them to the great ideas they had for the best ways to talk with children and young people.

What we produced

• Core Questions
• Website
• Films
• Augmented Reality Application