Megan Hinton talks to the people transforming
Speaking the way victims are being treated.
out to
A
ccording
to the
NSPCC’s
data one
Save
in twenty
children
in the UK
have been
sexually
others
abused or
exploited. So, how are the professionals mak-
ing sure they are treating victims right?
I spoke to Siobhan Pyburn who was
sexually abused by her father from a young
age. Siobhan is now using her personal lived
experience of sexual abuse to spur change
and has been campaigning for 10 years. Over
the past 10 years Siobhan has trained around
1000 professionals and has reached around
100 to 200 survivors through her campaign
work.
She mainly speaks at conferences held
for professionals, these conferences aim to
train professionals to be able to deal with
victims of child sexual exploitation correctly.
Lots of past mistakes have been made and
conferences like this enable professionals
such as police, NHS staff, social services and
teachers to hear first-hand what support
victims need.
Siobhan has now branched out and is
starting to run her own safeguarding work-
shop called Dare to Ask. Everyone who will
be speaking at dare to ask as lived experience
of child sexual abuse. The workshop will
give an exclusive insight into what needs to
change when dealing with victims. Siobhan
said, “if we break even I will be proud never
mind going beyond that.”
Although talking about her abuse is still
difficult, Siobhan says “it’s worth it” when
she hears back from professionals saying
they’ve put into practice the advice she gave
with victims they’ve recently dealt with.
Survivors of Child Sexual
Exploitation are using their
experience to make a change.
The Survivors Trust is a charity that
represents specialist sexual violence support
services, their member agencies work with
around 90,000 victims, aged 3 and up, each
year. The Trust has been providing help and
support in many different forms from play
therapy to training professionals with the
help of survivors for 15 years.
I spoke to Fay Maxted OBE, the CEO of
the charity who said, “our aim is to provide
a voice for victims and survivors to improve
the response they get from society”. “now
more people are coming forward reporting
and seeking support. We like to think we
have been a part of that process. We know
that we have made a difference in terms of
government bodies hearing directly what
survivors need and what makes a difference.”
“...it’s nice to
see people aren’t
keeping silent
anymore.”
I also spoke to Adam Shaikh who was
abused by a family member from the age
of nine. He is now using his experience to
educate others. Adam began his campaign
journey at Shape Youth Forum where he
aimed to raise awareness for child sexual
exploitation amongst the public.
Through this he became a youth police
crime commissioner which is where he
began his next campaign. This campaign was
aimed at Asian males who were victims of
child sexual exploitation, “I wanted to urge
them to come forward and speak up about
their abuse.” This campaign was broadcasted
on ITV’s six o’clock news and it resonated
with the public. Adam said, “After my broad-
cast aired people reached out to me to show
their support and sympathy’s, it humbled
me and made me want to continue with the
work I’m doing.”
There has been a slight rise with the Asian
male demographic in reporting child sexual
abuse since Adam has been campaigning.
“I feel like there may be a slight correlation
between this and the work me and my youth
forum have been doing, it’s nice to see people
aren't keeping silent anymore.”
Adam has now started to run education-
al workshops for parents in schools about
internet safety and how to protect their chil-
dren from abuse online. Although he cannot
bring his personal experience to this he feels
he has ‘a lot to give’ as there is only a limited
amount you can do to protect children of
abuse within the family. He wants to help
protect children from all sorts of abuse and
the internet is a good place to start.
Whilst there is still a long way to go to
help victims of child sexual exploitation, it’s
amazing to see survivors using their experi-
ence to help others. Professionals are finally
realising that the best way to make sure
they’re getting it right is by being educated
by survivors themselves. Professionals now
are not only listening but putting into prac-
tice the advice the survivors are giving and
making sure future victims have the support
and respect they need.