Author: Sally Ann

More PBs

25 July 2013
Categories: Protective Behaviours

With the heat well and truly here it also feels like things are ‘hotting up’ PB-wise. My PB Training Partnership colleague, Simon joined me at the recent ‘Hope for the Hurt’ conference held in Northampton and we had a great time re-connecting with ex-colleagues and meeting people who were already using Protective Behaviours. In fact, PBs seemed to be a common thread in both key-note presentations and in the work within individual workshops. The 2 PB themes (‘We all have the right to feel safe all the time’ & ‘We can talk with someone about anything even if it is awful or small’) to me underpin how people can start to heal wounds for themselves whilst not having to do it by themselves. Thank you to all the people who took part in the day and especially to John Fardon and Jenny Harris for organising the conference and inviting us to attend. Special thanks also to Mandy Higgs, whose stand was next to ours and joined us in having fun while reminding me of all the amazing work she and the highly skilled people who used to work for NCC continue to do with people and families affected by autism.

Following on from this at the beginning of July, there have been opportunities for more PBs work with other agencies including contact with NSPCC /Childline and also Sharon Evans, (Values Versus Violence & MissDorothy.com). I am looking forward to developing these networks over the coming months. The demand has also increased for more PB training, so another open-access course has been confirmed in Corby plus the first Foundation course, that I’m aware of, in my home town of Grays, Essex! Really going ‘back to my roots’ here and feeling like I’m risking on purpose. Details and booking form for the Corby course can be found by following this link.The dates for the course in Grays are 6th & 20th November 2013 and I’m awaiting total venue costs before producing the booking form/flier so feel free to ‘watch this space’. 🙄

One more thing that I have discovered during this lively PB time is how to balloon model PB network flowers. Whilst Simon was writing policies for Equality & Diversity and Health & Safety, I thought I would put my creative talents into action. I had a go at trying to recreate the Network balloon flowers that I remembered Di Margett’s daughter Emma producing at a PB Conference held at the Hockey Stadium in Milton Keynes way back. So, with Michael Floyd via YouTube on my network and my son’s balloon modelling kit resurrected from the back of a cupboard, I set to work. The result can be seen below although the squeals of joy and laughter which lead to the finished product cannot, for I found it absolutely compulsive as well as hysterically funny every time a balloon burst, either on inflation or during the twisting process. The whole experience was, for me, both therapeutic and fun. Isn’t it great when we find something we can practise and get better at – so glad my opportunity was balloon modelling rather than policy writing – cheers Simon 😆

balloon-flowers

Risking on Purpose

3 June 2013
Categories: News, Protective Behaviours

I feel so pleased to be able to say that it never fails to amaze and astound me the lengths people are willing and able to go to raise awareness of things they feel passionate about. Matthew McVarish is one of these people and is currently on the 4th day out of 600 days of a 10,000 mile walk to ‘Stop the Silence’ that surrounds child sexual abuse. Matthew will walk from London through 31 capital cities across the EU and return to Edinburgh 18 months later on 5th February 2015. On Friday 31st May 2013, I felt so privileged to be part of a small crowd that saw Matthew off from the National Theatre on London’s South Bank. Accompanying Matthew walking the first hundred steps or so down to Westminster Bridge complete with Piper and balloons and then tearfully waving ‘good bye’ as he climbed the steps up to the road on his own and set off on an incredible journey is a day I will always remember. You can find out much more about Matthew’s story by visiting www.roadtochange.eu. Thank you so much Matthew for all you’re doing and also to Sandra Brown, founder of the Moira Anderson Foundation and Protective Behaviours trainer for sharing this wonderful project. The photos below show Matthew’s route and Sandra and Matthew sharing one final goodbye hug. To find out more about Sandra’s amazing story please visit www.moiraanderson.org.

Later that same morning, with the sound of the bagpipes still in my ears, I headed off on an adventure of my own. A couple of weeks earlier I caught the tail end of an ex-MP speaking on the radio about ‘empowering children to keep themselves safe’. Yet again I found myself shouting ‘Protective Behaviours’ at the radio and decided that now was the time to do more than shouting. So I ‘googled’ the person I heard and sent an email all with a view to sharing my passion for the PB process and how it is and can be used to keep people safe while having fun and adventures.  When asked later by some friend ‘what were you thinking?’ I realised that I did what I did because I am feeling increasingly confused and frustrated that there are so many individual and successful PB projects around yet there hasn’t been a way of joining them up so everyone can have access to them regardless of where they live.  I’ve set myself a bit of a challenge therefore to see what I can do to make this happen and stop yet another ‘postcode lottery’.

I need to say a big thank you to my wonderful friend Chris who came with me on Friday to make sure I didn’t get lost and kept myself safe. In my opinion the meeting went as well as it could have done and I managed to pause for breath at least twice in the 90 minutes! The next step is to share more information about existing projects with a view to working out how this could be replicated. And the fantastic thing is that there are currently PBs projects that work with parents and families, children of all ages, schools, people in prison, residential homes 

. and probably lots more that I’m not aware of. So if you know of any that are currently running please let me know so I can share this information with perhaps some other people who can help to make PBs accessible to an even wider audience. And, I will be asking a few of my PBPeople buddies to join me in presenting this information. I’ll keep you posted as to how my mission goes alongside Matthew’s epic adventure with a hope that we will both be able to say ‘things are changing’ as we perhaps even march up the Royal Mile towards the Palace of Holyrood on 15th February 2015!

Happy 1st Anniversary PBPeople :)

1 May 2013
Categories: News

What is it that’s said about ‘time flying when you’re having fun?’ That certainly seems to be the case in terms of the work that’s been going on spreading news about PBs, so much so, that it took a great PB friend and colleague of mine to remind me that it was exactly 1 year ago that we went live with the PBPeople website. So, if you haven’t visited it yet, this link will take you there and you will be able to see what all the fuss is about and join in the forum discussion. There’s also a training room with a selection of free downloadable resources to support the implementation of PBs.

Happy Birthday PBPeople 😛

Got there!

3 April 2013
Categories: News

Wow…what an amazing end to this financial year it has been for me with a burst of training courses all over the place. And each one has lead to some fantastic memories and opportunities to learn. Firstly, there were three four-session Foundation PB courses for parents held across central Bedfordshire in a variety of interesting venues! And, despite the trials and tribulations of trying to keep warm and ensuring children felt happy and secure whilst playing in a crĂȘche, we got there. Thank you so much to each adult who ‘risked on purpose’ by coming along to each session, contributing to discussions, sharing ideas alongside developing new strategies for coping with everyday life. I will always remember the revised comment ‘Well, I’m human” as opposed to “Well I’m only human.” (Cheers Megan).

There was also a day-trip to Brighton and the charity Safety Net to join their network meeting and share my ideas about how Protective Behaviours can be used with babies and young children. And again the weather was freezing and we still managed to keep warm whilst talking and ‘doing’ PBs :-D. I’m also back in Brighton in June for the next PBPeople Trainer Meeting so really hoping things will have warmed up by then and may even feel safe enough to get in the sea! (One of our agenda items is to look at a PB Conference in Brighton for 2014 – will keep you posted). And if you’ve not yet seen the wonderful Safety Net website feel free to click here.

My work in Rutland also led to another day out which this time focussed on helping Early Years Practioners look at positive ways to help young children learn how to ‘behave’. It will be really good to see and hear how this has been developed when I’m back there later this month visiting settings and seeing how ‘the language of safety’ is being used to describe exactly what it is adults want children to do whilst preserving self-esteem and enhancing relationships. Old habits die hard so real persistence will be needed to change scripts.

And just before Easter I spent a couple of wonderful days in Dereham, Norfolk leading a PB Foundation Course with people working in schools for children with ‘complex needs’. I had so much fun and so it would appear did all those that attended. It was fantastic to be working with people who were looking to ‘re-launch’ their PB work with students as well as those that were new to PBs. One school had also started to use a ‘restorative approach’ in their classes, so the fit with PBs was perfect. I’m really looking forward to seeing how these two approaches work side-by-side and will keep you posted.

So, it’s time now to look ahead and continue to spead the PBs message. The good news for me is that alongside the training flurry that saw out the last weeks of the last financial year came a request for more PBs and Babies – fantastic! I’m also planning to co-facilitate another PB Specialist Practitioner course with Simon Sneath which starts in early June and is based in Corby. The full details can accessed via the Events page of the Protective Behaviours Training Partnership website.

Well that’s it for now although hoping to add some photos to this post very soon. I once again feel so chuffed that I ‘got there’ using my knowledge of PBs and all that it can bring in terms of feeling safe whilst having adventures!

A Day for Love?

14 February 2013
Categories: Baby Room Project, News

I was just thinking about writing a new post as have had quite a few new developments training-wise and then also realised that it was St Valentine’s Day – a day for celebrating and spreading love. And this is exactly what I hope to do today and also the other 360+ days of the year. This afternoon I’m facilitating the 2nd session of my Baby it’s You & Me course with 8 beautiful and amazing babies and mums. Today we will be learning about emotional development and how we can help babies to feel safe and love culiminating in some singing together and peaceful bubble blowing. What a wonderful thing to be able to do.

My hope and wish would be that St Valentine’s Day reminds us all of what it feels like to love and be loved. And I think the following clip is a wonderful example of what we all could do to help people feel perhaps just a little bit that way:

Happy Valentine’s Day 😛

A Successful Bid!

14 January 2013
Categories: Protective Behaviours

Happy New Year and what a year it may prove to be for developing work in Protective Behaviours as a bid that the Protective Behaviours Training Partnership submitted to deliver Protective Behaviours Training for a number of local authorities has been successful.  We had hoped to have heard the outcome before the end of 2012, but found out last week – what a great way to start 2013.

If you would like some further information about Protective Behaviours and access to courses please visit the PBTP and the PBPeople websites or make contact via my contact page.

Baby it’s You & Me

11 December 2012
Categories: Baby Brain, Baby Room Project

Babies really are amazing.  This was clearly evident at a session last Friday morning held at a local Children’s Centre where parents and carers of babies under 12 months were invited to come and play together.  The pictures below show the space we used before and after a ‘Changing Rooms’ style makeover.  The babies were offered the opportunity to explore the 4 areas: visual, physical and multi-sensory stimulating as well as a calm and soothing space.  The adults were encouraged to ‘look, listen and note’ while the babies were allowed to lead the way and were not put into positions they could not get in or out off.  Our youngest visitor is due to be born in the next couple of weeks, and a beautiful 2 week old enjoyed snuggling down and sleeping.  Twin girls showed how different their likes and dislikes were and a whole group of boys chilled out in the ‘snoozy’ zone.  Each baby left with a Festive ribbon shaker and a wooden brick with one of Hertfordshire’s 5 to Thrive messages to remind the ‘grown ups’ what they can do to help build a baby’s brain.

Thank you so much to Helen and all the staff at Bridge Road Children’s Centre in Stevenage for your enthusiasm and support for the session.  Thank you also to all the parents/carers and babies who came along on a wild and windy morning to play and learn together.  I look forward to meeting some of you again during the ‘Baby it’s You and Me’ course which is due to start at the end of January 2013 and to share the magic of discovering just what makes each and every baby so amazing.

Home | Articles by: Sally Ann