SEXUAL SAFEGUARDING

Experience-Informed Safeguarding

A Groundbreaking Criminological Approach to Preventing Child Sexual Abuse & Exploitation

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A Criminological, Prevention-First Approach to Safeguarding

 

At Public Child Protection Wales (PCPW), we take a fundamentally different view of safeguarding. Having spent more than 20 years in criminology, safeguarding, and community protection, we know that preventing child sexual abuse requires much more than reacting once harm has already occurred. Traditional safeguarding frameworks are heavily weighted toward disclosure and response. While crucial, these measures are often too late. Our approach — rooted in criminological insight and prevention-first thinking — tackles the root causes of abuse, equips professionals and communities with the tools to recognise risks, and empowers them to act before children are harmed.

 

Experience-Informed Safeguarding: A New Model

 

The Experience-Informed Safeguarding model developed by PCPW shifts the focus from reaction to prevention. By exploring how offending behaviour develops, examining the contexts in which harm occurs, and recognising patterns that precede abuse, this model provides practical, evidence-based strategies for early intervention. Safeguarding is not just about protecting children after they disclose — it’s about reducing risk factors, disrupting harmful environments, and closing down opportunities for abuse in the first place.

 

Our model stands on three pillars:

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1. Academic Expertise — postgraduate criminology research and applied safeguarding knowledge ensure the model is rigorous, evidence-based, and informed by the latest research.

2. Professional Credentials — decades of high-level safeguarding practice, sector training, and expertise in child sexual abuse (ICSA) and exploitation awareness underpin its practical application.

3. Lived Experience — first-hand insight into vulnerability, risk, and harm brings authenticity, depth, and a reality-grounded perspective often absent from mainstream training.

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Real-World Impact

 

The pilot scheme — trialled in community settings and with professional audiences — has been praised for its honesty, innovation, and ability to provoke meaningful reflection. Participants describe it as unlike any safeguarding training they have ever received: challenging, eye-opening, and transformational. Building on this success, the programme is now being tailored for delivery in prison environments. This groundbreaking step provides individuals in custody with the chance to reflect on their life histories, recognise their own risk factors, and better understand the pathways that can lead to harmful behaviour.

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Why Prevention Starts Here

 

Most safeguarding approaches begin only after abuse has taken place. They prioritise disclosure management, crisis intervention, and victim support. These responses are vital — but they are not enough. Without prevention, we remain trapped in a cycle of harm and reaction.

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At PCPW, we believe prevention must come first. Our Experience-Informed Safeguarding model is designed to interrupt abuse before it happens — by understanding how offenders think and act, by recognising the subtle warning signs that surface long before disclosure, and by equipping individuals and organisations to shut down opportunities for abuse at their root.

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This is not just safeguarding training — it is safeguarding transformation.

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What Makes This Training Unique

 

This is not generic safeguarding. It’s a specialist, complex programme that blends:

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• Criminological research and theory

• Specialist safeguarding credentials

• Lived experience inside the criminal justice system

 

The result? Training that goes far deeper than checklists and policies — offering a rare, inside-out perspective that bridges the gap between academic insight and real-world risk.

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Designed for the Highest-Risk Environments

 

The Experience-Informed Safeguarding programme is suitable for:

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• Prison environments – as part of rehabilitation and prevention

• Community interventions – for those at risk of offending or re-offending, with a focus on prevention.

• Professional safeguarding training – for educators, social workers, law enforcement, and NGOs

 

Participants are guided through a process of self-reflection and analysis, learning to:

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• Identify personal and environmental risk factors

• Understand the grooming process and offender decision-making

• Recognise patterns of harm before they escalate

• Examine how vulnerabilities are targeted and exploited

 

Our Four Prevention Concepts

 

1. The Offender’s Toolkit

 

All offenders differ — but there are three common tools that every perpetrator needs. This module helps participants understand these tools, how they are used, and how awareness can disrupt the cycle before it begins.

 

2. The Perpetration Scale

 

A visual mapping process from first exposure to disclosure (and beyond). This unique scale makes the “invisible crime” visible, showing the often-long duration of abuse and the complex barriers to justice.

 

3. Who? What? Where? Why?

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A questioning framework designed to make critical thinking second nature. If an action or policy cannot be explained with evidence, it’s a red flag that needs addressing.

 

4. The Grey Areas

 

When it comes to sexual safeguarding, “grey areas” should instantly become red flags. This module challenges the normalisation of unsafe practices and reinforces black-and-white standards in safeguarding.

 

Evidence-Based, Reality-Checked

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This training draws on multiple data sources, including:

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• Publicly available offender and safeguarding case data

• Welsh police force records and Education Workforce Council findings

• Academic research and criminological studies

• Real-world offender narratives

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This evidence-based approach allows us to measure risk from two critical perspectives:

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1. The responsibility of protectors to prevent harm

2. The risk from within safeguarding environments — including the reality that predators can and do exist inside trusted roles

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Proven Results & Outstanding Feedback

 

Piloted in community and training contexts, this programme has already trained over 100 participants with consistently excellent feedback. Attendees describe it as:​