Dr Tania de St Croix,

Senior Lecturer in the Sociology of Youth and Childhood – King’s College London’s School of Education, Communication and Society

Dr Tania de St Croix has been a youth and community worker since she was a teenager, mostly working in detached and community-based youth work and adventure playgrounds. She now works at King’s College London, where she is Senior Lecturer in the Sociology of Youth and Childhood. Her research is on the value and evaluation of youth work, and she is especially interested in critical and radical perspectives and approaches.

Jess McBeath,

Director of Jess Digital

Jess is an online safety consultant with a focus on empowering digital citizens: we should all be able to live a good life online.  Jess advises organisations and professionals on online safety strategy, policy and practice. She is a member of the ASA’s Advertising Advisory Committee and chairs Ofcom’s independent Advisory Committee for Scotland. Jess has an MBA and a degree in Linguistics and AI.

This panel brings together partners from Police, Health, and Digital Education to explore how collaborative approaches can strengthen safeguarding and promote early intervention across communities.

The discussion will look at how youth work practice is viewed by other partners and how it might evolve to meet the challenges of a changing world — from supporting digital wellbeing and emotional resilience, to addressing youth violence, gender-based issues, and risky behaviours. Panellists will share insights into how partnership working can build trust, reduce barriers, and promote wellbeing in both real world and virtual online spaces.

Shruti Jain is currently the Programme Lead for Young People’s Health at Public Health Scotland. She is passionate about promoting a fair and just society and reducing health inequalities. In her spare time Shruti sits as a Trustee for the UK’s charity for walking Living Streets (she loves walking!) and the Human Rights Consortium Scotland.

Assistant Chief Constable Tim Mairs joined the Police Service of Northern Ireland in 2002 and held roles in numerous areas, including Serious and Organised Crime Investigation and Operational Support, before moving to Police Scotland as an Assistant Chief Constable in July 2020. ACC Mairs is the Executive Lead for Local Policing in the East of Scotland, covering Fife, Forth Valley, the City of Edinburgh and the Lothians and Scottish Borders.

Ainsley Carnarvon is Head of the Heart of Midlothian Innovation Centre, where he provides strategic leadership and forges national and international partnerships that combine technology, creativity and youth work to inspire the next generation. With a background in STEM education, digital inclusion and community engagement, he is committed to creating safe and empowering spaces for young people.

1. Sextortion: What Youth Workers Need to Know  

Facilitators: Lyndsay McDade, Fearless and PC Verity Ferry, Police Scotland 

Sexual extortion, or ‘sextortion,’ is a developing threat and a form of online blackmail and exploitation. It is increasingly affecting young people across the world, including here in Scotland. While recent headlines have raised much needed awareness, many youth workers are still asking: What exactly is sextortion? How does it happen? And – crucially – how can we support young people if they’re targeted?  

This interactive workshop will answer those questions, share insights from young people and let practitioners delve into the range of resources available to them.  

This workshop will provide: 

• An understanding of what sexual extortion (‘sextortion’) is and its specific impact on young people in Scotland.  
• An awareness of the common barriers that prevent young people from reporting sextortion and an opportunity to explore practical strategies to reduce these barriers.  
• Knowledge of key resources to help them to engage young people and their families in open, informed conversations about sextortion.  

2. From Voice to Action: Youth Participation in Homelessness Prevention  

Facilitators:  Maxine McGinn and Sean Tilbury, Cyrenians  

This workshop will use examples from Cyrenians’ work with young people at risk of or experiencing homelessness to show the importance of trusted relationships and spaces to identify homelessness risk and prevent issues from escalating.    

Through the lens of youth participation, we will also explore how young people’s voices are leading change in organisational practice, service design and wider public policy. 

This will include insights from young people involved with our youth participation work.  

• Understanding of what homelessness risk can look like for young people and the role youth workers, and other professionals, can play in preventing homelessness.  
• Examples of meaningful youth participation and learning from trying to influence change in policy and practice. 

3. Embedding Contextual Safeguarding in Youth Work Practice: A North Lanarkshire Perspective  

Facilitators: June Ford and Jennifer Lafferty, North Lanarkshire Council 

This interactive session will take a deep dive into what Contextual Safeguarding means in a youth work setting, exploring how we can better understand and respond to the risks young people face beyond the home, such as peer influence, online harm, and community-based violence.  

We’ll unpack the core principles of Contextual Safeguarding, showing how it shifts our focus from individual behaviour to the social, relational, and environmental contexts shaping young people’s lives. This approach strengthens youth work’s unique contribution to safeguarding, grounded in relationships, trust, and everyday spaces where young people feel safe.  

Drawing on North Lanarkshire Council’s journey, we’ll share practical examples of how contextual approaches are being embedded in youth work practice, including trauma-informed tools, cross-sector partnerships, and real-world challenges.  

The session will also highlight how Contextual Safeguarding aligns with key frameworks like GIRFEC, The Promise, and the UNCRC, helping us place young people’s rights, safety, and wellbeing at the centre of our work.  

There will be plenty of space for discussion and reflection. This is not just a presentation, it’s an open conversation. We invite you to share your insights, ask questions, and explore how we can collectively build stronger, safer contexts for young people across Scotland.  

4. “A Space to Be: Growing up and Healthy Masculinities” Lessons from The Borders  

Facilitators: Vicki Ridley, No Knives Better Lives (YouthLink Scotland) and Stacey Gordon, Scottish Borders Council 

This workshop explores the importance of engaging boys aged 8–12 in conversations about masculinity, belonging, and wellbeing at a much earlier stage than has traditionally been the case. Delivered jointly by No Knives Better Lives (NKBL) and Scottish Borders Community Learning and Development (CLD), the session draws on national research, youth-led enquiry, and direct practitioner experience to demonstrate why early intervention matters. 

The session will outline: 

• Why Imagine a Man has expanded its scope from 12+ to younger boys. 
• Key findings from research with young people and practitioners across Scotland. 
• The importance of reframing the narrative from “toxic masculinity” to hopeful, positive masculinities. 
• Lessons learned from a Borders-based case study working directly with 11-year-old boys in a primary school. 

Participants in this workshop will: 

• Hear directly from practitioners about what worked—and what didn’t—when piloting masculinity-focused sessions in a primary school. 
• Explore how early interventions can prevent negative patterns becoming entrenched in adolescence. 
• Consider how to adapt approaches for their own local contexts, whether in schools, youth clubs, or community settings. 
• Take away practical tools, resources, and reflections from both NKBL and Scottish Borders CLD. Signposted to the research report ‘Growing up and Masculinities: A Space to Be’ and the Activity Booklet ‘A Space to Be’ (both available online) 

5. Time to Talk Collaborative  

Facilitators: Dot Horne, 6VT Youth Cafe and Cara Spence – The Junction 

This workshop will showcase the award-winning ‘Time to Talk’ youth work collaborative. Time to Talk is a collaboration of five work organisations in Edinburgh focused on supporting young people’s mental health and wellbeing. Key features include:   

• Scotland’s first and only Emergency Department-based youth work service, delivered by 6VT Edinburgh City Youth Cafe. This pioneering service places youth workers directly in hospital settings, where they engage with young people at times of acute need.   
• Wrap-around one-to-one support for young people delivered by trusted youth work charities The Junction, Wester Hailes Youth Agency, Granton Youth, and Canongate Youth. Providing a city-wide service in communities where support is the needed most.    
• Delivery linked to ‘Whole Family Wellbeing’ principles and transformational change.  

This workshop will share the Time to Talk model and initial data on impact. It will use a case study approach to discuss:   

• How brief, well-timed interventions in Emergency Departments can lead to sustained support for young people. How youth workers can use these moments to build trust and begin conversations that often lead to referrals into local youth services, mental health support, and other practical help within the community.  
• The unique role of youth workers have in supporting mental health and wellbeing and to navigate complex challenges. How youth workers can recognise and respond to wider family issues, whilst ensuring the approach is young people centred. 

6. Shameless Youths 

Facilitated by Lucy McGovern – West Dunbartonshire Council, Euan MacLaren – NSPCC, Jenny Kerr and Jess Thomson – West Dunbartonshire Youth Council

Shameless Youths is a youth-led project, designed in partnership with the NSPCC, which recognises the supportive discussions between adults and young people around online activity.  

The campaign particularly focuses on more traditionally difficult conversations around consent including sending and receiving nude images and all levels of online relationships.  

The project produced videos and toolkits to support adults having these conversations and an educational young person’s toolkit. 

This workshop will: 

• Look at the latest information and statistics on harmful online behaviours. 
• Support to educate young people on online harms  
• Discuss how to have “shameless” conversations with young people who may be at risk of online harms.