See Beyond: A Professionals' Guide
Young woman who took part in research for See Beyond
I got arrested, it wasn’t even those officers that were horrible to me, It was the ones in the station. It was hard to believe they really cared.
The way someone presents when they’re in custody doesn't tell the full story.
Hundreds of young women across the UK are being exploited into their situation. They need help and support. Exercise your professional curiosity, ask the questions you should be asking. By understanding, you could protect a young woman from future harm.
See Beyond is a toolkit that provides information, resources and guidance for criminal justice sector professionals and practitioners to look beyond what they see and provide support to young women who have been exploited and coerced into harmful behaviours.
Through conversations with young women and our caseworkers who work alongside them, we developed recommendations for criminal justice sector practitioners and the police who are working with young women in custody.
Our recommendations
Ongoing trauma-informed training for police
Ongoing trauma-informed training amongst police is crucial in order to improve the treatment of potentially vulnerable young women in custody and to hopefully reduce the number of arrests made in the first instance.
Specialist therapeutic interventions
Specialist therapeutic intervention should be offered to young women after leaving custody. This is so they can receive the emotional support they may likely need to process their experience of being in custody and anything that took place whilst there.
Ensuring young women know and understand their rights
Women should be asked multiple times throughout their time in custody, whether they understand their rights, if they have any additional needs or require any further information e.g. about their rights. The shock and likely trauma of being arrested, can make it hard to mentally process or take in any information provided at the initial point of arrest.
Maintain confidentiality
Police need to ensure that the personal information shared by young women when entering custody is kept private and confidential at all times.
Trauma-informed female welfare officers
Trauma-informed female staff members e.g. female welfare officers (as suggested in the Baird Inquiry 2024) should be allocated to young women when in custody, especially concerning matters of female personal hygiene.
Professionals can access the toolkit for further advice and guidance, as well as resources for young women in custody settings.
Download the toolkit
CLICK HERE
Assets and materials for young women
All of these materlas are also linked within the toolkit.
Know your rights
Factsheet: Do you know your rights?
Comic: Know your rights in custody
Know Your Rights in Custody Animation - English Subtitled
Know Your Rights in Custody animation - BSL Subtitled
You can access alternative language versions of these resources in the See Beyond toolkit.
Unhealthy Relationships & Exploitation
Factsheet: Unhealthy relationships & exploitation
Comic: Unhealthy relationships & exploitation
Exploitation & Unhealthy Relationships animation - English Subtitled
Exploitation & Unhealthy Relationships animation - BSL Subtitled
You can access alternative language versions of these resources in the See Beyond toolkit.
How we can help
We advise you take the time to read and digest the full guide. If you feel you need additional support and guidance we can offer training and consultancy for a fee.
Please contact bd@saferlondon.org.uk if you want to discuss in further detail.
About this guide
See Beyond is a free open resource which we encourage you to use. However, we ask that you please respectfully credit Safer London when using this material.
This guide and all the associated assets, including the promotional film and the animations, were created with the support of Barrow Cadbury Trust. Barrow Cadbury Trust is an independent charity using all our resources for social justice.