VR Archives - Antser

Recognised by EY as a Regional Finalist

Racha Hussein — Wed, 07 May 2025 14:51:49 +0000

Being shortlisted as a Midlands finalist for EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™ 2025 is a proud moment and a meaningful point to pause and reflect.

The Antser Group was founded on the belief that innovation, applied with empathy and purpose, can drive real change. Our mission has always been to support professionals, children and families through practical, accessible and human-led solutions.

That vision is delivered through three core organisations:

Carter Brown Experts, providing multi-disciplinary assessments that support decision-making across local authorities, family, criminal, immigration law and more
Autism Assessment Hub, delivering independent person-centred autism and ADHD assessments with full pre and post diagnostic support, ensuring individuals and families have access to the right support and guidance from diagnosis and beyond
Cornerstone VR, our-award-winning, trauma-informed virtual reality programme designed to support professionals working with vulnerable children and their families.

Our work is guided by empathy, urgency, accuracy and a deep sense of responsibility. We believe that timely support should never come at the cost of quality. The services we offer are designed to be effective, evidence-based and shaped around the needs of the people they serve.

This recognition from EY is a reflection of the people behind Antser, and the collective effort it takes to create something that lasts.

We’re proud of what we’ve built, and even more committed to what comes next.

The post Recognised by EY as a Regional Finalist appeared first on Antser.

Innovative VR Programme Wins National Award for Transforming Children’s Services

Corinna — Wed, 04 Dec 2024 09:07:00 +0000

A groundbreaking trauma-informed virtual reality (VR) solution has been recognised for its impact in children’s services at a prestigious national awards ceremony.

Cornerstone VR, who enhance training and interventions in health, education and social care through their powerful virtual reality programme, were honoured to be presented with the Excellence in Children’s Services award at this year’s Laingbuisson Awards.

Held on November 21st in London, the award ceremony honoured the innovative partnership between Cornerstone VR and Inspirations Children’s Residential Care Homes, Leicestershire.

The judges at the LaingBuisson Awards highlighted the initiative as, “Genuinely innovative and groundbreaking, offering a truly unique therapeutic approach that has the potential to make a real difference for some of our most vulnerable young people.”

Using Cornerstone VR’s virtual reality programme, Inspirations have enhanced their staff training, improved their recruitment process and retention rates, and empowered children to navigate complex risks in the digital age.

Professionals trained through the programme have reported a dramatic improvement in their ability to understand and support children’s needs. Following the VR training, 96% of participants reported having a deeper understanding of a child’s perspective, and left the training equipped to independently lead VR sessions with children and families.

The Deputy Manager of one residential home shared,

“The VR sessions that the children have taken part in have provided Outstanding practise for our recent OFSTED inspection. They were very impressed with the videos completed and how this has supported our children’s understanding on different topics to support them, their knowledge and wellbeing.”

Keywork sessions, which were previously brief or inconsistent, have become more engaging, with some lasting as long as two hours. One notable case involved a young person who had a history of absence. Following the VR sessions, they changed their social circle and stabilised their behaviour, with no missing incidents reported in over six months.

Parminder Basra, Director of Operations at Inspirations, expressed the significance of the initiative:

“The VR headsets have helped our staff provide a better service to our children, giving them more understanding of their needs.”

Serena Hadi, Head of Operations and Practice at Cornerstone VR, added:

“Winning the ‘Excellence in Children’s Services’ award is an incredible honour and reflects the dedication of our teams. The partnership with Inspirations demonstrates the power that virtual reality technology has in strengthening relationships, promoting safer choices, and improving outcomes for vulnerable children.”

Cornerstone VR continues to expand its impact across the health, education and social care sectors, delivering innovative solutions that transform how professionals connect with and support those in their care.

For more information about Cornerstone VR’s innovative programme and recent developments, please visit; www.cornerstonevr.co.uk  

To see the full list of 2024 LaingBuisson Award winners, visit: https://laingbuissonawards.com/2024-winners/

The post Innovative VR Programme Wins National Award for Transforming Children’s Services appeared first on Antser.

Leading VR Provider Returns to its Roots with Rebranding and Strategic Realignment

Corinna — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 16:04:45 +0000

Cornerstone VR, a pioneering division of The Antser Group, has announced the next step in its evolution with a strategic rebrand highlighting its commitment to providing the best possible outcomes for vulnerable children and young people.

Formerly known as Antser VR, Cornerstone VR has renewed focus on the brand’s core mission and values, re-establishing what the company has achieved since its inception in 2017 – delivering impactful training and intervention solutions across the health, education and social care sectors.

The return to Cornerstone VR also signals a reconnect with its established customer base, strengthening the company’s values and brand identity and reaffirming its commitment to delivering exceptional service and customer satisfaction.

Mohammed Hussain, Managing Director at Cornerstone VR, said; “We are delighted to embark on this next chapter. Our continued partnership with The Antser Group underlines our shared dedication to improving outcomes for society’s most vulnerable, and we have lots of new and exciting plans and projects to share in the coming months.”

Cornerstone VR remains dedicated to driving impactful change through its flagship virtual reality (VR) programme, which is renowned for its immersive, trauma-informed approach, empowering professionals to deliver enhanced care and support to individuals of all ages.

The programme’s immersive experiences are designed to foster empathy and understanding of early-life trauma, such as abuse and neglect, covering key topics such as child exploitation and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD).

The initiative has been widely adopted across local authorities, fostering and adoption agencies, schools, police and healthcare providers. Under the new strategic direction, Cornerstone VR is also broadening its scope within the education sector, developing content that confronts critical challenges faced by today’s youth, including social media pressures, knife crime and serious youth violence.

Richard Dooner, CEO of The Antser Group, said: “Cornerstone VR’s rebrand signifies a major step forward in aligning with their broader vision. We are committed to supporting Cornerstone VR in its innovative approach to creating better outcomes for vulnerable individuals through groundbreaking solutions.”

In addition to its VR programme, Cornerstone VR offers comprehensive learning and development courses under Cornerstone Training, formerly known as Antser Learning.

The courses are designed to equip professionals across the social care sector and beyond with essential skills and knowledge and are delivered through various formats including virtual, face-to-face and VR-enabled sessions.

Find out more about Cornerstone VR here.

The post Leading VR Provider Returns to its Roots with Rebranding and Strategic Realignment appeared first on Antser.

Dangerous underside of social media highlighted in new VR films

Corinna — Tue, 09 Jan 2024 10:10:37 +0000

With almost 90 per cent of young people believing that social media is driving harmful behaviour, a new series of virtual reality (VR) films has been developed to help explore the online dangers they face.

Four new films have been created by Cornerstone VR, part of the Antser Group, to raise awareness of young people’s activity online and the impact this can have on their personal safety and mental health.

In a survey conducted at the end of last year by YoungMinds, it was reported that 34 per cent of young people wanted to leave social media weekly but felt unable to do so, while more than a fifth (22 per cent) are shown distressing content, based on their browsing history, at least once a week.

The Royal Society for Public Health found that using Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram led to increased feelings of depression, anxiety, poor body image and loneliness among 14-24-year-olds.

Serena Hadi, head of operations and practice at Cornerstone, said: “It’s no secret that social media is now an inescapable presence in the everyday lives of so many of us, especially among young people.

“It yields huge power and there are many people using their influence online to target vulnerable children and young people. When we started doing our research, we were really surprised by the methods that these individuals were using.”

Cornerstone VR’s latest films were written and scripted after several focus groups with professionals working with children in social care and the education sector, including the teams at Inspirations – providers of children’s residential care homes – and the London Borough of Redbridge, as well as conversations with young people and consultations with social media experts.

The first is an introduction to social media, showing how it fits into the day in the life of a young person, such as WhatsApp conversations with family members to receiving unsolicited messages from strangers; films two and three show how young people can be persuaded to meet someone in real life; and the fourth focuses on the decline of a young person’s mental health due to social media.

Serena said: “Our new VR content is so important right now because it highlights the impact social media can have on both the physical and mental wellbeing and safety of children and young people. It was really important to us not to retread on old ground. We wanted to make the films as realistic and informative as possible to highlight the things that we don’t always see as adults.”

Parminder Basra, director of operations at Inspirations, said: “When asked if we had young people who would like to support Cornerstone’s new videos we were keen to do so as we understand the risk online social media has on young impressionable minds. Before the internet, the risk for children from strangers was mainly outside the home but this is no longer the case. We need to do all we can to educate and raise awareness to help young minds navigate their first experience of social media and throughout their childhood to equip them with skills to manage the risks.”

As one of the UK’s leading providers of technological solutions, Cornerstone VR is already used by public and private organisations nationwide to raise awareness of early life trauma, domestic abuse, child criminal exploitation (CCE) and child sexual exploitation (CSE).

For more information about Cornerstone VR, click here.

The post Dangerous underside of social media highlighted in new VR films appeared first on Antser.

Norfolk County Council adopts VR technology to support foster placement and adoption stability

Corinna — Wed, 03 Jan 2024 15:56:23 +0000

One of the UK’s leading providers of transformational solutions in health, education and social care has partnered with Norfolk County Council to provide cutting-edge virtual reality (VR) training in order to provide stability to foster and adoption placements.

Cornerstone VR, part of the Antser Group, is being used with foster carers in Norfolk to give them a deeper understanding of the children and young people they look after by highlighting the long-term impact of adverse childhood trauma.

Every year, more than 55,000 children in England are placed into the care of a foster family, accounting for 70 per cent of children in the care system – a statistic that is not dissimilar in Norfolk.

There are currently 805 children in fostering placements in Norfolk, including agency placements, out of a total of 1,220 looked-after children in the county.

As a result, Cornerstone VR is being implemented into all foster carer and adoption journeys, in order to help reduce:

The number of adoption breakdowns
The number of foster care placement breakdowns
The duration of support the adopters and kinship carers require

By using VR, viewers are immersed into real-life scenarios, enabling them to experience abuse and neglect first-hand through the eyes of a child. The films cover a wide range of topics from child sexual exploitation (CSE) and child criminal exploitation (CCE) to domestic abuse and county lines.

Serena Hadi, Cornerstone’s head of operations and practice, said: “At Cornerstone, we are committed to supporting better and more positive outcomes for children and young people, especially our most vulnerable. We’re incredibly pleased to be partnering with Norfolk County; I hope that the success of this programme can prove as a fantastic example of just how VR can be used to improve the lives of children and young people across the country.”

The training takes place in carers’ support groups as well as individual sessions to give foster parents insight into their child(ren)’s behaviour, triggers and the way they build relationships.

Social workers across Norfolk are also using Cornerstone VR’s headsets and accompanying video training to give them a fresh perspective on the young people they support.

Penny Carpenter, cabinet member for children’s services at Norfolk County Council, said: “The virtual reality training is just one of the ways we’re helping to support relationships between carers and their children and young people.

“We know fostering is both a rewarding and challenging experience and we want to make sure we are doing everything we can to support our carers, so they can provide the best care for our children.”

VR training is a powerful tool for helping foster carers and social workers to understand the lived experiences of children and young people who have experienced trauma, abuse, and neglect. By immersing them in real-life scenarios, VR can help them develop empathy and understanding, which can lead to better outcomes for the children and young people in their care.

For more information about Cornerstone VR, click here.

The post Norfolk County Council adopts VR technology to support foster placement and adoption stability appeared first on Antser.

The Knife Crime “Pandemic”: The Challenges, Misconceptions and Solutions – Part 2

Corinna — Mon, 29 Mar 2021 17:10:09 +0000

Part 2: The Knife Crime "Pandemic": The Misconceptions and Solutions

By Jeffrey Wotherspoon, Leadership Coach at Antser

This article is part of a series.
See Part 1: The Knife Crime “Pandemic”: The Challenges here

Jeffrey Wotherspoon is one of our Antser Subject Matter Experts in Gangs, County Lines and Knife Crime and an Executive Coach and Conflict Resolution Specialist. Jeffrey’s background is predominantly focused around youth work, with extensive experience in the criminal justice system. Over the years Jeffrey has worked on the frontline with some of the UK’s most vulnerable young people who were involved with gangs, county lines, and serious youth violence, as well as working with adult high-risk offenders.

Jeffrey currently works within Antser’s Virtual Reality teams using the technology as a new, innovative way to tackle gangs and knife crime successfully among young people and practitioners.

Knife crime soared following the ease of lockdown in summer 2020. As the Government announced its plan to gradually ease restrictions at the beginning of March 2021, concerns have been raised over a continuation of this trend.

One of the major misconceptions in relation to young people involved with gangs and knife crime is the misconception of ‘choice’ i.e. how much autonomy a young person would have to decide upon their involvement in a gang and/or carrying a knife.

I will highlight three misconceptions that speak to the various stages of joining a gang, and engaging in knife crime or other serious youth violence:

MISCONCEPTION 1:

Young people choose to be part of a gang. Young people have nothing better to do and therefore ‘choose’ to join a gang or they ‘choose’ to join gangs because they think it is ‘cool’.

MISCONCEPTION 2:

Young people involved in knife crime are all perpetrators. Young people ‘choose’ to stab each other because they are ruthless thugs and come from violent homes.

MISCONCEPTION 3:

Young people could leave a gang at any point in time if they chose to do so. Young people ‘choose’ to stay in gangs and would leave if they really want to.

Before I speak any further about the ‘choices’ of young people, I will outline 3 scenarios based on the 3 misconceptions and leave it to the readers to think about what ‘choice’ they would make. And truly, this is where Virtual Reality can help in understanding and empathising with the emotions of young people, who find themselves in these difficult situations. Our most recently developed VR immersive films depict the harsh reality of gangs and violence, and can immerse practitioners into specific scenes such as – the trap house, drug abuse, sexual abuse, gangs and knife crime.

Our Virtual Reality Films are professionally directed and structured to capture the entire experience of a young person involved in gangs and knife crime. To see actual footage of our films, please get in touch with us via hello@antser.com

Scenario 1:

You are 13 years’ old when the local gang in the area you live in approaches you and asks you join them, or they will consider you a rival. What would you choose?

Scenario 2a:

You are 15 years’ old when the ‘older ones’ (those with the greater status in your local gang) order you and a few others to ‘ride-out’ (go to a rival gang territory to initiate violence). They also make it clear that none of the gang members are to return to the area unless “there is blood on the shank”. What would you choose to do?

Scenario 2b:

If you ‘choose’ to ride-out, what would be your weapon of choice? a) Knife, b) Gun, c) Hammer, d) Other sharp instrument or e) Another weapon? Remember, whatever you choose you will need to be able to conceal it.

If you were ‘brave’ or naïve enough to go to a rival gang territory without any weapons, how would you explain it to a) your fellow gang members ‘riding out’ with you? and b) the ‘older ones’ who gave you the orders?

An important note to bear in mind is: You could make your gang the object of ridicule if it was known that “you went to ride out without any weapons”. This could have negative implications for the gang and therefore consequences for you.

Scenario 3:

You decide you want to leave the gang.

a) How will you do it?
b) What would you tell your fellow gang members?
c) What would you tell your rivals? An important note to bear in mind: There is risk of harm to you from both sides.

The scenarios above are what most would call a catch-22 situation. Young people do have to make choices, and they may find themselves in situations that whatever choice they make, risk is associated with it.

The misconception of ‘choices’ young people make or could make when facing a dangerous or difficult situation is just that – a misconception. These choices are not what perpetuate gangs and knife crime. Rather, it is the fear of being victimised by gangs and knife crime that perpetuates the choices.

Are there young people who the above scenario/s do not apply to, and they had opportunities to not engage in gangs and knife crime? Yes. This reflects another issue, as gangs and violence are a part of most, if not all communities.

A better question is: Would the majority of young people that are involved with gangs and knife crime not participate if there was no fear or the need for protection?
The answer is: No, it is highly unlikely.

From my own experience and that of working with Antser within the field, young people are often made or encouraged to attack others early on in their teens. By the time they are between 16-18 years’ old, they have done it so many times they have become desensitised to it. They may have also been a victim themselves or have friends that are victims, and, as a result, find themselves in a continuous cycle of violence, where it becomes more of a reactive (default) position than a proactive choice. There is a genuine belief amongst gangs that some violent episodes “have to happen”.

If you would like to learn more about using VR as a behaviour change tool within your practice, please get in touch with us at hello@antser.com.

The post The Knife Crime “Pandemic”: The Challenges, Misconceptions and Solutions – Part 2 appeared first on Antser.