No more shame. No more secrets.

Our mission is to reduce the incidence of child sexual abuse. We do this ​through professional training, policy advocacy and awareness ​campaigns.

We are driven by the notion of what we think would have helped us.

Children often struggle to disclose sexual abuse due to the shame and ​sense of responsibility instilled by abusers. They rely on adults to ​intervene. Our training equips frontline professionals with the skills and ​understanding necessary to pre-empt and overcome these barriers, ​maximising the likelihood that children will feel safe enough to disclose.

Disclosure is the goal. The crux of our work is to enable disclosures at the ​earliest possible opportunity. Our training is followed up with an extensive ​feedback process and the option of further support for your team.

Proud winners of the Stephen Lloyd ​Awards 2024!

Will you #DareToAsk if a child is ​being sexually abused?

We offer a one-day (09:30-17:00) workshop, delivered live anywhere in ​the UK, and suitable for up to 60 participants. It’s called ‘Dare To Ask,’ ​because that’s what we want frontline professionals to be willing and ​able to do as a result of our work.

The topics we cover are as follows:

• Our personal accounts of abuse, including why we kept it a secret, ​missed opportunities, and what helped us to eventually speak out.
  
• The reasons why children find it so hard to tell you if they’re being ​abused.
• How to help the children in your care to disclose, despite the barriers ​they face: specific examples of what to say, without asking leading ​questions. We wish someone had said these things to us!
  
• How to respond supportively when a child trusts you with a ​disclosure.

The workshop includes plenty of group discussion and feedback, such ​as a role-play exercise in which we demonstrate the various reactions ​children get to disclosures, ranging from seriously unhelpful to excellent.

Our standard fee for a Dare To Ask workshop is £3800*, which includes:

• A day of survivor-led training with a focus on helping children to ​disclose.
  
• Facilitation by three trainers who all have direct experience of child ​sexual abuse.
• Trainer expenses, including travel from London + accommodation.
• Our follow-up process, including a 30min check-in with Siobhan 1-3 ​months post-training to understand how your organisation has ​integrated the learning into its practices, and whether any ​disclosures have been made since.

*We are offering a discounted ‘pilot’ rate of £3200 until the end of 2025.

To explore your organisation’s safeguarding needs and see if our ​survivor-led training can help you, please book a free 30min call here:

Our team

Tim Verity is a journalist and writer who has ​worked in regional and national news media ​since 2010. He is also a survivor of child sexual ​abuse and, in 2017, successfully prosecuted ​the relative who abused him as a child.

David Miles is a marketing consultant and ​trainer. He experienced sexual abuse from two ​different teachers during his time at boarding ​school. He helps us to raise awareness of how ​abusers operate, and to campaign for the ​introduction of mandatory reporting laws.

Our values

The following principles underpin all of our work:

1. ‘Nothing about us, without us!’ SURVIVOR ENGAGEMENT is a top priority ​and, in the longer term, we will look at how we can get more survivors ​involved. For now, our starting team includes those who have delivered ​training with us in Beam Project’s previous iterations. Siobhan and Tim ​have direct experience of abuse within the family, whereas David’s ​personal experience is of abuse within an institutional (school) setting.

2. TRANSPARENCY. We have hidden a terrible secret for most of our ​childhood and we aren’t hiding anymore. We welcome participants to ​ask us anything during our training. That also goes for how our ​organisation is run: we will share everything from our annual report to ​our pricing and strategy, where not listed publicly then available on ​request. Please let Siobhan know, for example, if you would like to see ​scans of the original feedback forms from our training events held in ​2017-2019 which say things like:

‘very inspiring and illuminating, emotive issue but presented in a very ​effective manner,’ and ‘your input and honesty, learning, developmental ​areas, and overall presentation will be invaluable to their [child ​protection police officers’] training’.

Short of inventing a time machine to show you our previous live events, ​we will do whatever it takes to prove that our approach has value to our ​funders, clients, and other stakeholders.

3. CANDOUR. We’ve noticed that there is a lot of problematic jargon in ​safeguarding. We want to be known for straight-upness and empathy. ​Siobhan feels that jargon sometimes gives stigma a place to hide. We ​therefore aim to ‘write how we talk’, and to talk how we talk, as much as ​possible whilst also recognising that this issue is complex and requires a ​nuanced view in so many respects.

4. EFFECTIVENESS. Does our work actually work? No one has the ‘answer’ ​to child sexual abuse, but we want to be able to say our work reduced it. ​We are keen to receive and review regular feedback (including from our ​funders) so that we can continue to build a case that what we do ​matters. It is almost impossible to prove in a straight line that we were ​directly responsible for a reduction in child sexual abuse, but insofar as ​we can collect evidence to suggest the same, we will do that.

Did you know? There is no legal duty ​to report CSA to a local authority in ​England.

Not even if you’re a teacher.

You’re thinking ‘that can’t be right. Didn’t I go to a safeguarding training ​one time where they said it was a requirement to pass on any child ​protection concerns? But I’m a paediatrician. Of course I have to refer. I ​volunteer with the Scouts. I’ve read the latest version of ‘working together ​to safeguard children’, I don’t believe it.’

The statutory guidance does not amount to a legal duty, which makes ​the term ‘statutory’ redundant. There is no mandatory duty to refer even ​known abuse contained in any statute in English law. It does not exist. ​Well-meaning professionals are often shocked to learn that the current ​framework is full of could, should and would, but no must.

The independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse ran a series of ​consultations about this in 2019 (why would they spend time debating ​whether professionals should have a legal duty to report, if it already ​existed?). They ended up recommending the introduction of mandatory ​reporting. But the version that the government responded with, in 2024, ​misses many of the key elements which are needed for an effective law. ​See Mandate Now’s analysis of why.

Here’s Siobhan’s contribution to the IICSA seminar:

As a result of the seminars, IICSA made a recommendation to ​government to introduce mandatory reporting for child sexual abuse. ​The government eventually responded with a legislative proposal which ​falls short of some key elements that good reporting legislation must ​include. You can see a full analysis of the proposed law here.

We are planning a campaign for mid-2025 to persuade government to ​make this needed change to our child protection framework.