Crossing Boundaries research project transcript

00:00

Crossing Boundaries was a piece of research that was participatory in nature, i.e. we’re interested in involving people in the research. And the idea was to understand whether we could create an information sharing tool that better served children and young people who were being exploited or at risk of being exploited or sexually exploited we wanted to create a tool because we know information sharing doesn't work very well. And it often doesn't include children, young people or families when it's meant to. So we wanted to understand if there was a way we could do it that would include children, young people, and would enable them to contribute and understand what was going on. So we wanted to work with people and with professional organisations and with people in community organisations.

Professor Elaine Arnull is talking to the camera.

00:48

The idea was to create something simple, and that also showed the complexity of what happens in exploitation, which is that it involves a whole series of things which are both about interpersonal relationships, but are also about things like the community that surrounds us, how much money we do or don't have, the other organisations involved, what opportunities there are, and things like that, so it allowed us to try and create some of that sense of all the different things that come into the mix when you're talking about exploitation.

01:23

So we approached the Nuffield Foundation and said we think we could look at developing a prototype information sharing tool, and we'd really like to do this. We think it can be collaborative, we think it can be participative, and we've got buy-in from the local community and the professional organisations. And so we then made a bid to them, and they funded the project to look at whether it was even possible to do this. And could we develop a prototype, which is what the outcome is of this tool. So the feedback we've had on the tool has been really positive. And that includes people with lived experience of being sexually exploited who have said to us, "actually, we think this could be used in direct work, with children and young people who are at risk or with people who've been sexually exploited".

02:08

Children and young people have said to us, "this would be a really good way of even beginning to discuss issues like exploitation, but without ever using the term exploitation, just – who do you share information with?" If you're worried or anxious about something, who would you talk to? Who would you expect them to talk to? Would they include you in that conversation? And then professional organizations have said to us, they think it could be a way both of mapping who they speak to, who gets left out of those conversations, reflecting on what they do. We've also found that different professionals use it differently. And so that's also a good way of looking at who people think the important person is. And again, who gets left out of those conversations. And then we've also found it's just actually a really good way of recording information, and that you could record information on the tool and then update it subsequent points. And you can actually say whether you're coming back to people, whether you're talking to them, whether the right people are involved in the conversations, and whether they're a very obvious gaps.

03:14

The tool is called the Mutual Information Sharing Tool, MIST. And what we want to do is find out – because so many people have such as it could be used in different ways – what we want to do is actually be able to trial it in different settings and actually see who does it work for, when does it work? When doesn’t it work? That's what we need to understand. So we want to have we'd like a really big quasi experimental study: what was there before, and then implementing the tool, and then does it make a difference both in multi-agency settings but in other settings? What we'd also like to do is just trial it more small scale in collaboration with people with, some organizations working directly with children, young people or people with lived experience about can this work? We're also interested in just trialling it with particular professional groups because we know things get used differently in different ways. So we would just like to understand when does it work really. And so to do that, we need funding, but we also need partners. And we're open to talking to people about this.

00:00

We also know, because I did it yesterday, that we can use it in teaching and learning. So, we used it with a whole social work cohort here at Solent. And I've had approaches from some professors at some other universities about whether it could be used with teachers, for example, who are training, and or nurses. So actually, whether we can also change the way that people approach information sharing and feel more open about that and and more open in the methods they use.

04:48

The next steps in terms of partners are actually getting it out there and getting it used. So we are looking for partners who are willing to try it. And we're looking for funding that enables that to happen. We're looking for a range of partners really. We'd like a big project that looks at actually implementing it in a multi-agency, multi professional setting that also allows people with lived experience to input into this. But we're also looking for some smaller scale projects, where we trial it, perhaps with a voluntary organisation that works with people with lived experience or that works with people, with children and young people or perhaps individual professional groups, does it work? And we've also used it in educational settings with people who are training to be social workers, teachers, and other professional groups.

05:39

Video ends with a wave graphic and the Southampton Solent University logo