Staffordshire Safeguarding Children Board (SSCB) are currently conducting six Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews, three of which have intra-familial child sexual abuse at the heart of the review. The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) conducted a seven year inquiry in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal to examine how institutions responded to allegations of abuse in England and Wales – both in the past and present, which concluded in October 2022. The report called the scale of abuse in England and Wales “horrific and deeply disturbing” which has led the government to table a move to prosecute anyone working with children in England and Wales if they fail to report child sexual abuse. This is currently out for consultation.
SSCB along with partner agencies are gathering learning from the reviews which is then cascaded within their organisations to be actioned leading to improvements to systems and process of practice. Learning has identified a need for practitioners to think more critically, explore the lived experience of the child, hear their voices through spoken word and behaviours especially when a disclosure is not made. We need to share more infomation, have discussions, look at historical infomation and the wider family and explore any explanations given without exception. More information about perpetrators is needed, we need to understand how we as professionals can also be groomed by coerciveness and deception to believing all is well and at all times keeping the child at the centre of our practice. Contact your Safeguarding Lead for more information.
NSPCC Learning has published a briefing on its pilot of a system-wide approach to child sexual abuse (CSA). The briefing provides an update on the work undertaken as part of the Home Office CSA Support Services Transformation Fund awarded to the NSPCC’s Child Sexual Abuse Recovery Project in 2020/2021. It outlines the development of a new assessment of local areas’ CSA provision, new training modules in CSA, and updates to the NSPCC’s current Letting The Future In service for children who have experienced sexual abuse. The NSPCC has been awarded funding from the Home Office Support for Victims and Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse (SVSCSA) fund towards delivering services and training partner organisations across England and Wales.
Read the briefing: Child Sexual Abuse Recovery Project briefing
The Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse has created and launched a short, introductory eLearning to help those in social work, policing, education, healthcare and beyond to understand what intra-familial child sexual abuse is, provide guidance on how to identify concerns and build knowledge and confidence in how to respond to support both children and their wider family
The course takes just 90 minutes to complete and consists of three engaging modules, with interactive tasks, video explainers and a final assessment, with a certificate at the end. It is designed for professionals at all stages of their career; for those new to safeguarding, or as a helpful refresher.
The Lucy Faithfull Foundation provides information and support for people troubled by their sexual thoughts about children and young people. Their website aims to help people to cope with unwanted feelings and urges and offers guidance about how to manage problematic behaviour. The helpline is free, anonymous, and completely confidential.
The Lucy Faithfull Foundation has developed deterrence campaign to show the serious consequences of looking at child sexual abuse images online. The video ‘The Knock’ features several men who are frightened of a sound that could be a “knock.” In the final section, one of the men receives a knock on the door from the police. He is subsequently arrested for looking at sexual images of children online. The video ends with a message signposting potential offenders to self-help resources online and the helpline. During its development, the film was tested with focus groups of internet sex offenders. Since the video was launched and disseminated on social media, it has been viewed over 1 million times and is Lucy Faithfull’s highest performing film.
The Lucy Faithfull videos can be found at https://www.youtube.com/@stopitnowukireland/videos, posters and leaflets can be found at https://www.stopitnow.org.uk/resources/.
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