Source: Church of England published on this website Friday 14 February 2025 by Jill Powell

The INEQE Safeguarding Group has today published its first annual report into the independent audit work looking at safeguarding arrangements within Church of England dioceses and cathedrals.

Sarah McKimm, Independent Chair of the Audit's Quality Assurance group and independent chair of the London DSAP (Diocesan Safeguarding Advisory Panel) said: 

"There has never been a more important time for safeguarding arrangements within the church to be the focus of independent rigorous scrutiny. As a national leader of safeguarding with extensive experience across a wide range of settings, INEQE reports objectively and dispassionately, without fear or favour, acknowledging good practice and progress while also highlighting areas for improvement. This first annual report will help dioceses to drive further improvement."

The Church of England’s lead safeguarding bishop, Joanne Grenfell, said:

“I welcome the initial overview report of independent audits from INEQE published today, audits originally commissioned as one of the Church of England recommendations in the IICSA (Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse) report. Independent audit and scrutiny of our safeguarding work is vital, as in any institution, so we can continue to improve and learn. INEQE highlight a range of themes – both challenging and reassuring - coming out of their initial work. We look forward to their further scrutiny and recommendations as this audit plan continues across the Church and we thank all our cathedral and diocesan safeguarding officers for their continued professional commitment and hard work in making the Church a safer place”

Source: UK Safer internet Centre published on this website Tuesday 11 February 2025 by Jill Powell

For Safer Internet Day 2025 (11^th February), new research released by the UK Safer Internet Centre (UKSIC), coordinators of the day in the UK, reveals that exposure to scams is a regular part of life online for young people, with 79% of 8 to 17-year-olds coming across scams online at least once a month, almost half (45%) at least once a week, and 20% seeing scams online every day.
 
The research found that almost half of 8 to 17-year-olds (46%) have been scammed online and 9%, including 8-year-olds, have lost money to an online scam before – highlighting the critical need for more support to tackle online crime and help young people stay safe online.
 
Now, more than ever, we need to respond to this as for children and their parents and carers the situation seems to be getting worse. The research found that 83% of parents and carers feel there are more scams than ever before, a view shared by almost half of children (47%). In addition, 81% of parents and carers and 43% of teens feel that online scams are getting more convincing, and around a third of young people (32%) worry that the use of new technology, such as gen AI, will make scams much harder to identify.
 
The UKSIC reveals these findings as part of Safer Internet Day 2025, the UK’s largest online safety awareness campaign, which is focussing on the issue of online scams this year, following consultation with children and young people. The UK Safer Internet Centre coordinates Safer Internet Day each year in the UK, supported by thousands of organisations to reach millions of young people, parents, carers, and educators across the country, giving them the vital information, resources and support they need to keep young people safe online.
 
The UKSIC hope the resources provided this Safer Internet Day can spark productive discussions and signpost effectively to further help if young people or the adults around them are worried about a potential scam online, as well as
help address the fact that 74% of young people want to learn more about how to spot scams online.
 
  Read the full research report and exec summary: Research – UK Safer Internet Centre

Source: Norfolk Safeguarding Children Partnership published on this website Thursday 13 February 2025 by Jill Powell

This information has been provided on behalf of Central Bedfordshire, Suffolk, and Norfolk Safeguarding Children Partnerships.

In June 2023, Isabella Wheildon tragically died. Scott Jeff has been found guilty of Isabella’s murder, and Isabella’s Mother, Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell, pleaded guilty to causing or allowing the death of a child and child cruelty.

The death of any child carries with it significant trauma.  The circumstances of Isabella’s death have had an enormous impact on her family, friends, those who knew her, and professionals who worked with the family.  This has been a case that has touched many people across our counties, and all the Safeguarding Partnerships involved in this statement have been truly shocked.  We all offer our sincere condolences to Isabella’s family and will continue to offer support to anyone who has been affected by her death.   

Given the circumstances of Isabella’s death, it was agreed that a Local Children’s Safeguarding Practice Review (LCSPR) should be commissioned.  This independent review has examined multi-agency safeguarding practice prior to her death.  It is important that the Partnerships and all people involved in safeguarding do all they can to learn from cases such as this. Only when we do this will we have the best opportunity to reduce the risk of similar cases occurring in the future.

The purpose of the review is to identify learning and consolidate good practice. The report from the review includes recommendations for improvement. These recommendations relate to the individual agencies involved, multi-agency practice and national issues.   

All of the agencies involved accept the review findings and work is already underway to implement the recommendations. To avoid delay in implementing learning, the draft recommendations were shared with all the agencies involved and the draft report was also shared with the National Panel, the body that oversees all LCSPR's. 

The Safeguarding Children’s Partnerships will work with agencies to ensure that recommendations are implemented. 

Again, all the Safeguarding Partnerships send our condolences to Isabella's family and our thoughts are with all those who knew and loved her at this extremely difficult time.  

If you need information or support on keeping a child or young person safe visit www.norfolk.gov.uk/keepingchildrensafe.

The full review can be found on the NSCP Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews webpage

Source: Crown Prosecution Service published on this website Monday 10 February 2025

A former scout leader who assaulted children as young as seven over almost three decades has been jailed. 

Ian Charles Silvester, 60, was found guilty of 79 offences following a trial at Lewes Crown Court on 20 November 2024. Today, he has been sentenced to 16 years imprisonment, with an additional six years on extended licence. 

Silvester, of Brighton, was prosecuted by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) following an investigation by Sussex Police. 

Between 1986 and 2013, Silvester worked in various positions of trust, such as a Cub Scout leader, a diving instructor, a St John Ambulance trainer, a first aid trainer, and babysitter. Through these roles, Silvester was able to access and befriend the young victims and their families. 

He used these roles to persuade young boys to do what he asked, often under the guise that they were playing an innocent game or taking part in an educational activity. In reality, Silvester was purposefully manipulating them into situations where he could inappropriately touch and molest them for his own sexual gratification.  

Following his arrest, a number of digital devices were seized from the defendant’s home. Analysis of these devices found a huge amount of incriminating material, including images and recordings of the victims being assaulted by Silvester, indecent images of children, online chat logs and web search history about his sexual fetishes and sexual interest in young boys.  

Emma Lile, Specialist Prosecutor for the CPS, said: 

“Ian Silvester’s crimes are particularly disturbing given the various roles he held over many years where he was entrusted with the responsibility of caring for and safeguarding children. 

“He abused these positions in the worst possible way and took advantage of young boys. Silvester tried to claim that what he was doing was innocent, denying that his behaviour was sexually motivated. However, the prosecution was able to piece together a large amount of evidence which refuted these claims and present it to a jury who saw through his lies and found him guilty.

“Silvester’s offending has had a lasting impact on the victims in this case and I would like to commend them all for speaking about what happened to them, it is because of their bravery in giving evidence that we have been able to bring this sex offender to justice. 

“I hope this case sends a clear message that the CPS, working with law enforcement, will relentlessly pursue justice and prosecute those who sexually exploit children, whenever that abuse has taken place.”

To deal with some of the more complex and challenging child sexual abuse cases, the CPS has a dedicated Organised Child Sexual Abuse Unit to share specialist understanding, build strong cases and increase the amount of successful prosecutions.