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Vicki Shevlin

@vickishevlin_

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Independent Social Worker & Safeguarding Specialist
💻Founder @thesafeguardingcollective Training •Consultancy •Keynotes

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This is not professional advice or a full case study because there is limited information but this will help anyone thinking about this from a child protection perspective and understanding how analysis is formed.

Please make sure you watch the series referenced in full before making conclusions. by @vickishevlin_

by @vickishevlin_

Nothing like a big old overshare before a month off social media..

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Social work | social worker | asye | nqsw | safeguarding | social work skills by @vickishevlin_

The thumbnail is sending me under because it’s either a double chin or a blur but day 2 is done.

Any recommended reading on communication for social workers?

Safeguarding. Social worker. Social work. Social work book. Early career social worker. by @vickishevlin_

It’s talk money week and we can’t talk about money without talking about safeguarding.

Safeguarding is not just what happens when things go wrong, it’s about the steps it takes to prevent harm and when we think about the harm that can go side by side with financial abuse, it should be a reminder to open up a conversation about money.

*research from the money and pensions service

Safeguarding. Safe with money. Talk money week. Social work. Safeguarding Children. Financial abuse. by @vickishevlin_

In case anyone was worried, the reward for completing my words today was washing my hair, but follow along to see how increasingly disheveled I get as the word count *hopefully* increases.

The book is going to be for social workers (if you’re new hi I’m Vicki, I’m an independent social worker and safeguarding consultant) so I would love to know your absolute favourite books to recommend to your social work friends, whether it’s academic, mindset, non-fiction or fiction.

Ultimately this book is an academic one but my own personal brief is that I reallyyy don’t want it to be boring or pile up dust on your bookshelf, so I’d love some inspiration.

And if you have been here for a while, thank you for being here 💛 this book started in the depths of Instagram before videos were a thing and I will never ever play it cool about the fact that I get to turn all these posts into pages. by @vickishevlin_

I really don’t think the ‘popularity’ of Halloween, the emphasis on fear, horror and gruesome imagery, is in any way separate from the current social political economic climate.

So Fun sponges assemble because whilst a Halloween party full of fun, games, laughter and connection is an amazing thing for children, there is a very fine line between excitement and fear and the way children experience that emotion.

I see everything through a safeguarding lens which does make me good at my job, but it also means I will be questioning everything. I look at everything from the perspective of children who have experienced harm. Where love and fear has become mixed up for a child, something like Halloween can be extremely confusing.

That’s before we even begin to talk about problematic costumes and makeup, which @everydayracism_ do a great annual post about every year.

What do you think?

Safeguarding. Halloween. Social work. Safety. by @vickishevlin_

In many nuanced situation, blaming an individual is a very convenient way to avoid holding an entire system to account.

Parents have responsibility when it comes to their children using screens and at the same time none of us exist in a vacuum.

It’s a topic where the internet is desperate for us to fall into a trap of this vs that, but as with so much in safeguarding, it’s nuanced and it requires critical thinking.

What do you think?

Safeguarding. Social work. Screen time. Safeguarding children. Safeguarding in tech. by @vickishevlin_

This is uncomfortable for me too because I am SO guilty of telling my children to do one thing while I do another.

I am in full support of any campaigns that are designed to help children reduce all screen time and steer clear of social media but I’m hugely aware of the irony of promoting these campaigns to adults on social media as well as the irony of this video being posted on social media

At the same time, we can’t and shouldn’t be shaming parents into safeguarding, so what’s the answer?

Safeguarding. Social media. Safe on screens. Children. Tech. Social work. by @vickishevlin_

Part 1 looks at how we establish what we mean by screen time. There are huge questions about the amount of screen time and we now government guidance on the safest maximum time children of different ages should be exposed to screens, but if a child is struggling then going from 100 to 0 isn’t realistic.

What else would you ask?

Safeguarding. Screen time. Assessment. Social work. Safe screens. by @vickishevlin_

Screen time is a safeguarding conversation and the first thing we should be doing in safeguarding conversations is defining the terms.

Screentime has become a catch all phrase and if we are generalising a number of separate issues then it’s always going to be harder to find resolution.

Follow for part 2 of the series.

Safeguarding. Safe screens. Screentime. Safeguarding children. Social work. by @vickishevlin_

Just one of those situations when I feel like I’m being gaslit by media because what do you mean a photo of a baby in only a nappy is the chosen image to highlight a report about deprivation, poverty and outcomes.

The report is important but we have to remember that when we are talking about outcomes for children, everything is connected and nothing exists in isolation. Promoting better outcomes is so much harder to do within a media system that shows very little safeguarding knowledge.

Safeguarding. Digital media. AI. Safeguarding children. Photography by @vickishevlin_