Training is being stepped up to better equip youth workers to support victims of child abuse.

Reshet, the network for informal Jewish educators, will be holding a two-day seminar next week in partnership with the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.

Shelley Marsh, Reshet's executive director, explained it had not been prompted by any reports of increased incidence of child abuse within the Jewish community.

"This is about taking safeguarding and child protection forward," she said. "We do it well in the community but we want to make sure that it goes from good to great."

Residential camps and Israel tours in particular were "very intensive and transformative activities for young people. Sometimes they will need help and support. In schools, there is a statutory obligation for child protection but synagogue and youth work do not have to comply with those requirements."

This is about taking child protection forward

The first training session will be for those already responsible for doing safeguarding training within their own Jewish organisation.

A new handbook is intended to be "cross-communal and to meet everyone's needs".

Reshet will be calling on the expertise of Shirley Maginley, the NSPCC's consultant for faith and minority ethnic communities, who has worked with Jewish organisations.

Among faith groups, she said, figures of authority sometimes "may have concerns about protecting the community rather than protecting the child. You have tension in all communities."

But she was pleased with the response to the training initiative. Although there might still be "pockets of denial because child abuse is a difficult subject to talk about," she said, "the Jewish community is mobilising now" .

While signs of neglect or physical abuse may be apparent, other types of abuse such as sexual or emotional may be harder to recognise.

A child may not be able to speak about what's happening to them to a member of their own family and instead may confide in someone such as a youth worker. "If a young person talks to a youth worker who is not able to respond in the right way, they may not seek help again," Ms Maginley said.

She has previously authored a guide specifically for Jewish communities on dealing with abuse, entitled Worried about a child?

"Help is available within the Jewish community and there is no reason a child should go without the support which is there," she said.