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Home - CSA Centre

The Centre of expertise on child sexual abuse (CSA) has been established to help bring about significant and system-wide change in how child sexual abuse is responded to locally and nationally.

We will do this by identifying, generating and sharing high quality evidence of what works to prevent and tackle Child Sexual Abuse (including Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE)), to inform both policy and practice.

The Centre is funded by the Home Office, led by Barnardo’s, and works closely with key partners from academic institutions, local authorities, health, education, police, and the voluntary sector.

Aims of the Centre

All our activity works towards the overarching goal of having a positive impact for children and young people.

Specific aims include:

  1. Local areas across England and Wales have a confident and effective multi-agency response to CSA, based on access to evidence and information on what works.

  2. National policy on CSA is informed by the latest research and evidence produced by the Centre.

  3. Increased understanding and awareness of the scale and nature of CSA.

  4. A clear assessment of how recent changes and improvements to policy and practice have impacted on the scale and nature of abuse.

Our partners

Our partners are all represented on our advisory board:

Partner logos: Durham University, Coventry University, London Metropolitan University, University of Lincoln, University of Birmingham, NHS England, Local Government Association, Barnardo's, National Police Chiefs's Council, College of Policing

Our research

Our initial focus is child sexual exploitation; however our remit over the longer-term covers all forms of child sexual abuse.

Our current research

Our Evaluation Fund is now closed. Successful applicants will be announced in due course.

Evaluation Fund

Our team

Meet the growing team of specialists who are building the Centre of Expertise.

Cassandra Harrison Dr Sophie Laws Dr Gregory Hall Tim Leeson Vicki Calais
View team profiles

Help us shape our future

We are encouraging all sectors and organisational levels to engage with us, so that we can understand the needs of frontline staff, commissioners and those with responsibility for producing strategic responses to child sexual abuse.

Our ultimate aim is to have a positive impact for children and young people, and to do that we need to know what we can do to most usefully support you. Our consultation on our priorities has just closed but please sign up to our newsletter.

Information about vacancies with the Centre can be found here Work for the Centre 

Keep me informed

Need help?

Help is available if you or someone you know is being affected by sexual abuse or exploitation.

Find out who to talk to

Partner logos: Durham University, Coventry University, London Metropolitan University, University of Lincoln, University of Birmingham, NHS England, Local Government Association, Barnardo's, National Police Chiefs's Council, College of Policing