Millfield House Foundation

Previous Grant

Derwent Initiative

£15,000 (2011/2013) towards a programme of events and debates.

The Derwent Initiative has been working for 20 years to reduce sexual offending by creating partnerships to make people, places, communities and systems safe.  It has developed public protection programmes, most notably Leisurewatch, and research, training and consultancy both to lay people and to professionals. Drawing on TDI’s experience, the programme will highlight implications for policy and practice. A series of four debates held between October 2011 and June 2012, involving professionals with particular expertise in this field, focused on:

• the way in which children who commit sexual offences are regarded by society and the possibility of offering better and earlier interventions;
• how the sexualisation of children, especially in relation to images of children in today’s culture and in the media, is being approached by society, and what policy actions are required in response;
• how organisations, especially faith groups, deal with the issue of forgiveness - if forgiveness is possible - of those who have committed sexual offences, and what are the risks and policy implications;
• culpability – the responsibility of offenders for their actions; what our perceptions of the most dangerous offenders tell us about our society, and what are the policy implications of our attitudes. The four debates will be summarised in a final report which will be shared with policy-makers, funders and stakeholders at events in Newcastle and London.