Feeling Safe Group wins top award
A pioneering Warwickshire project helping children and young people affected by domestic abuse has won a major accolade – and could now go all the way to Wembley.
Kate Burns and Linda Paine from the Warwickshire County Council’s Domestic Abuse Social Work Service, and Victoria Hill, Consultant Clinical Psychologist (CAMHS) at Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust (NHS), received a Health and Social Care Award in recognition of their groundbreaking project, the Feeling Safe Group.
They scooped the Success in Partnership Working award which recognises teams who have developed integrated services, which are person-centred and cross professional and organisational boundaries.
The Warwickshire group won the regional heat at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham. They could now be selected to go forward to the national awards at Wembley in early July.
The aim of the awards is to celebrate excellence in health and social care and to encourage partnership working across organisations.
The Feeling Safe programme is one of the first resources of its kind to specifically address the needs of children and young people who experience domestic abuse. It has already won the support of the Ragdoll Foundation – a charity founded by Ragdoll Productions, award-winning producers of children’s television shows.
The Ragdoll Foundation sponsored the programme so that it could be published and used more widely by organisations working with children and young people nationally.
Chris Hallett, Head of Children In Need at Warwickshire County Council and Chair of the Warwickshire Safeguarding Children Board, said: “This award is a tribute to the hard work and commitment of the Feeling Safe Group who are not only helping children and young people in Warwickshire affected by domestic abuse but are also sharing a powerful resource with countless others around the country”.
The programme involves a weekly course for women and children to explore their own experiences and look at positive ways of dealing with their feelings in a safe way. Group work with children and young people who have experienced domestic abuse has been shown to be an effective and powerful use of resources.