David Shemmings’s research while affiliated with University of Kent and other places

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Publications (17)


May and Bay: Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in Southeast Asia — Using Digital Games in Preventative Education
  • Article
  • Full-text available

June 2024

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95 Reads

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2 Citations

Journal of Human Rights and Social Work

Emerita Jane Reeves

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Stephanie E. Jones

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Aravinda Kosaraju

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[...]

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This article follows the journey of creating a digital preventative education programme for combating online child sexual exploitation and abuse (OCSEA) and child sex trafficking in Thailand and Cambodia. Created and rolled out over 2 years as part of the End Violence Against Children (EVAC) grant during the COVID-19 global pandemic, this article sets out how the programme was designed, with direct input from children and professionals, and underpinned by human rights and contextual safeguarding principles. It outlines how collaborative approaches between children, academia, expert NGO’s, and professionals have resulted in a thought-provoking digital programme (May and Bay) that sensitively tackles sexual grooming and promotes child safeguarding. The article highlights how the game focuses on the interplay between children’s choices online and the environmental constraints they face, with the lead characters May (aged 11) and Bay (aged 13) making ‘risky’ and ‘safe’ choices against interacting aspects of their social and digital environments. The game supports the development of digital competence among children and professionals by promoting awareness of online harms emanating from the interplay of technology with children’s micro, meso, and macro environments against a range of people whose interaction with them may be ‘safe’ or ‘unsafe’. It recognises children, peers, parents, carers, professionals responsible for safeguarding, media, legislators, and local non-governmental and international aid organisations as potential ‘attractors’ or ‘agents within the system’ whose combined efforts can change how child safeguarding systems respond.

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Child Abuse (fifth edition): An evidence base for confident practice

June 2019

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64 Reads

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4 Citations

This best-selling text has been used by countless students, practitioners and researchers as a key reference on child protection issues. The book demystifies this complex and emotionally-charged area, outlining research, history, social policy and legislation, as well as the theory and practice underpinning child protection work. Written by influential academics and practitioners, this updated edition looks at child protection practices in a global context and provides: • The latest research and thinking on the causes and consequences of child abuse, including new insights about the relationship between deprivation, poverty and abuse and neglect • An overview of child protection practices, ranging from the 19th Century to recent policy and practice changes, including the widespread adoption of practice models and attempts to improve the quality of social work services Using examples to highlight key discussions and points, this book will enhance the confidence, knowledge and skills of practitioners, supervisors and managers.


Future proofing child protection social work

September 2017

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81 Reads

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3 Citations

Journal of Children's Services

Purpose How might the profession be ‘future proofed’ i.e. remain intact and of value beyond its present existence? Design/methodology/approach This is a discussion/'think piece' paper, in which I argue that foregrounding the art and science of helping relationships is a way forward. Recognising and promoting the centrality of helping relationships is the direction in which I believe (or is it hope?) social work should head, because ‘more of the same’ isn’t, in my view, possible to sustain for much longer. Treading the well-worn but pot-holed path of box-ticking, endless risk assessment and perfunctory statutory visiting is likely to lead to continuing problems retaining social workers and, for those who do stay, increased burnout, compassion fatigue and secondary trauma, each of which interrupts or delays the development of working alliances with family members. Findings Growing reliance on thresholds and check-lists to assess risk has served to increase referrals. As a result, social workers spend much of their time on triaging and filtering rather than working with the children and families that most need help and protection. Further, it is not what is in the practitioner’s toolkit that matters: rather, it is a defined set of personal skills and qualities that tips the balance to achieve lasting change. Thus, in order to ‘future proof’ social work we would do well to deepen our understanding of how helping relationships can lead to lasting change. Supporting social workers in this work is not just the responsibility of individual practitioners and their professional bodies: action also needs to be taken at governmental and managerial levels. Originality/value This is a discussion/'think piece'



Mixed methods evaluation of a menu of research learning opportunities for mid‑career social work academics with ‘protected time’

November 2015

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9 Reads

Social Work and Social Sciences Review

Knowledge about research methodologies and positive attitudes about research are each essential for academics who teach social worker students to advocate for and to deliver effective, empowering services to vulnerable people. This paper evaluates a menu of learning opportunities offered to fifty-two mid-career social work academics from 30 UK universities given ‘protected time’ to increase their research skills, funded by RDI4-ESRC. Qualitative and quantitative survey data are summarized. All participants attended five of eight conference days on research methodologies; 80% participated in small discussion groups; 49% attended a 3-day writing retreat; 49% signed up to a research mini-placement; 31% presented research at a conference; 21% submitted manuscripts to a journal. The demonstrated commitment of time, expertise, and advanced skills to this project from 32 senior social science/social work researchers came at a time when media was blasting the profession. They modelled enthusiasm and confidence and ‘bridged’ access for the ‘next generation’ of academics. Repeated encounters amongst the participants gradually built ‘bonded’ social capital ‘normed’ positively around the enterprise of research. Participants reported at follow-up increased knowledge and confidence as they teach... In the current economic context, there are benefits of ‘protected time’ combined with structured opportunities for mid-career social work academics.


A-Z of Attachment (Professional Keywords)

July 2015

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22 Reads

Launching Palgrave's interdisciplinary Professional Keywords series, this reader-friendly reference guide distils the study of attachment into digestible, yet authoritative, chunks. With over 60 alphabetized entries, it is the perfect introduction to the key concepts, debates and thinkers within this increasingly exploration of human behaviour.



‘Rosie 2’ A Child Protection Simulation: Perspectives on Neglect and the ‘Unconscious At Work’

March 2015

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1,964 Reads

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27 Citations

Child Abuse Review

Neglect is the most common category for abuse of children under one. It is prevalent in large families; where there is a mother with low self‐esteem and frequent changes of partner. Because neglect is difficult to work with, the Centre for Child Protection at the University of Kent has developed a child protection simulation – ‘Rosie 2’ – which is designed to train child protection professionals. It follows a social worker and health visitor on a virtual home visit to a family where neglect is a significant concern, and offers a safe opportunity to explore practice options. A small‐scale research project has been conducted whereby highly sensitive eye tracker technology and facial recognition software were used to examine the emotional responses exhibited by social workers and health visitors during this ‘virtual visit’. The results indicate that the prevailing emotion exhibited by the professional group showed a ‘neutral’ response. There were significant differences between the groups, with health visitors displaying more sadness, and social workers demonstrating greater surprise and disgust. The article discusses these findings in the context of debates on compassion fatigue and emotional response within child protection. We conclude by discussing how the findings can enhance professionals' supervision. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. ‘There were significant differences between the groups’ Key Practitioner Messages Neglect is a chronic problem in some families and can have long‐term effects on practitioners including burnout, compassion fatigue and secondary trauma. Simulations can provide immersive, realistic environments for child protection training and ‘Rosie 2’ has been developed for this purpose. Eye tracker technology coupled with simulations can provide insight into the unconscious emotional impact on practitioners of child protection work. This can potentially support and inform supervision. ‘Simulations can provide immersive, realistic environments for child protection training’



Child Abuse: An Evidence Base For Confident Practice

November 2012

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545 Reads

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29 Citations

"This is a timely and much welcome new edition of Brian Corby's highly respected work. It retains the excellent historical focus of the previous editions, but has been substantially updated to take account of the debates about the reform and reprofessionalistion of social work in the wake of the death of (Baby) Peter Connelly." Sue White, Professor of Social Work, University of Birmingham, UK


Citations (12)


... Article 19(1) requires majority countries to take all appropriate legislative measures to protect children from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or harassment, abuse or sexual exploitation. A significant difference between sexual exploitation and abuse is that sexual exploitation involves a form of exchange, such as financial gain, while sexual abuse does not necessarily include this aspect(Sandvik, 2022).According toReeves et al. (2024), OCSEA can be prevented using a collaborative approach between children, academics, expert non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and professionals producing thought-provoking digital programs (May and Bay) to sensitively address sexual grooming and promote children's protection. May and Bay game design and development process exemplifies the importance of a child-centered, human rightsbased approach and equitable partnerships in creating shared solutions to complex children's protection issues such as OCSEA, care, children's trafficking, and community protection. ...

Reference:

Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (OCSEA) of children and adolescents: A Systematic Literature Review
May and Bay: Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in Southeast Asia — Using Digital Games in Preventative Education

Journal of Human Rights and Social Work

... Childcare approaches and parenting themselves can be seen to be based on different understandings of the structure, roles, and responsibilities of families and children in different countries [48,49,52,53]. Child protection work itself is partly, if not mostly, determined by societal views regarding what constitutes good childcare and child abuse [54,55], thus affecting the culture and norms regarding the definitions and operationalisation of ideas about childhood and the treatment of children [56]. ...

Child Abuse (fifth edition): An evidence base for confident practice
  • Citing Book
  • June 2019

... The nature and quality of the helping relationship between the professional and the client appear in literature (Stanley & Sethuramalingam, 2015) as a significant variable to determine the result of the intervention (Ardito & Rabellino, 2011;Shemmings, 2017), as well as represent a key factor from the very beginnings of this profession (Biestek, 1957). The development of an empathic attention means that clients feel that they are listened to, valued, recognised, legitimised, and respected. ...

Future proofing child protection social work
  • Citing Article
  • September 2017

Journal of Children's Services

... This finding implies that for these schools to meet high service satisfaction levels, they must improve teacher motivation. This finding is consistent with, Corby et al. (2003), who noted that bonus schemes, reward systems, pay systems, and benefits packages are essential in the process of retaining key employees. ...

Child Abuse: An Evidence Base For Confident Practice
  • Citing Book
  • November 2012

... Guidance and ideas for educators regarding home visits in VR are presented (Blakeman 2019; Davis et al. 2021;McDonald et al. 2021;Minguela Recover et al. 2021;Reeves et al. 2015), as is work against domestic violence (Adelman et al. 2016) and teaching SBIRT (Washburn et al. 2021;O'Brien et al. 2019;Putney et al. 2019). Other studies discuss assessing students' skills (Sacristan and Martinez 2023), teaching communication and/or interviewing skills (Casey and Powell 2021;Martin 2017;McDonald et al. 2021;Putney et al. 2019;Røed et al. 2023;Tandy et al. 2017), self-efficacy (Hsiao 2021), and research methods (Sanchez Mayers et al. 2019). ...

‘Rosie 2’ A Child Protection Simulation: Perspectives on Neglect and the ‘Unconscious At Work’

Child Abuse Review

... Spesielt i Storbritannia har det i kjølvannet av flere svaert alvorlige tilfeller av mishandling hvor barnevernet har fått sterk kritikk for å ikke klare å forhindre at barn har blitt alvorlig skadd eller dødd (Shemmings et al., 2012;Tuck, 2013;Warner, 2013), blitt etablert en forestilling om «svaert motvillige familier» («highly resistant families»), som har blitt en sekkebetegnelse på foreldre som barnevernsarbeidere finner det vanskelig å arbeide med, og som ikke endrer seg å tross av barnevernets intervensjon (Shemmings et al., 2012.). Det vokste frem en ekstrem risikodiskurs i kjølvannet av disse dødsfallene, som også har bidratt til en intensivering av en diskursiv formasjon av en «farlig og skitten underklasse» (Warner, 2013). ...

Gaining the trust of 'highly resistant' families: Insights from attachment theory and research
  • Citing Article
  • May 2012

Child & Family Social Work

... Q metodolojisi, katılımcıların bakış açıları, görüşleri, inançları, tutumları gibi öznel durumlarının sistematik çalışılabilmesi için temel sağlayan özgün bir metodolojidir (Brown, 1993). Q metodolojisi, öznelliğin örüntülerinin nicelleştirilmesiyle kavramsal kategorizasyonlar geliştirerek, nitel analize yenilikçi ve tamamlayıcı bir yaklaşım getirmektedir (Shemmings ve Ellingsen, 2012). Q-metodu karma desenlere benzemesine karşın, benzersiz bir yaklaşım olmasından dolayı ne nicel ne de nitel bir araştırma deseni olarak isimlendirilememektedir. Bu sebeple literatürde quali-quantilogical (niteliksel-niceliksel) olarak tanımlanmaktadır (Stenner ve Rogers, 2004). ...

Using Q methodology in Qualitative interviews
  • Citing Chapter
  • January 2012

... Regarding qualitative attributes, this methodology is an innovative approach to conducting qualitative research by quantifying subjective tendencies or values held by individuals and analysing the interpreted value types [29]. McKeown and Thomas [30] highlighted the complementary nature of Q methodology's quantitative and qualitative research approaches to explore subjectivity, incorporating factor analysis. ...

‘Quantifying’ qualitative data: An illustrative example of the use of Q methodology in psychosocial research
  • Citing Article
  • July 2008

... This finding concurs with the findings of Shemmings' study in 2004, which found that one group of attachment practitioners prefer self-report methods of data collection, in part because of their low cost, convenience and ability to survey large samples. 198 In addition, many services find it helpful to either send out the SDQ to clients and families prior to a first appointment or ask the client and/or family to complete the questionnaires in clinics prior to the first meeting (the questionnaires may also be subsequently given out again after 6 months). 192 It appears that respondents focused primarily on using outcome measures to address parenting, maternal mental health, child mental health and development and less so on attachment itself. ...

Researching relationships from an attachment perspective: The use of behavioural, interview, self-report and projective measures
  • Citing Article
  • November 2004

Journal of Social Work Practice