The CSA Centre blog

This is a guest blog from Stuart, following a recent roundtable discussion hosted by him and Peter Yates' on their paper for us on sibling sexual abuse. In this post he reflects on some of the conversations that were had amongst the policy and practice attendees and shares some conclusions on what must happen next. 

In this blog Ian reflects on the Tackling CSA Strategy, this country’s first ever cross-government approach to tackling child sexual abuse. Whilst it presents the first step towards a strategic approach to tackling this national threat consistently - and with a clear head - this blog focusses on two points in more detail: the need for much better information on the true prevalence of child sexual abuse, and the importance of maintaining the strategy’s broad and very welcome focus on all forms of child sexual abuse.

In this blog Sophie continues her series reflecting on how the current research and evidence base helps us understand different aspects and experiences of child sexual abuse.  Sophie highlights the publication of new research published by the Independent Inquiry on Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) considering the experience of child sexual abuse in ethnic minority communities. This research is important given the relative paucity of research considering child sexual abuse of children from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds. 

Senior Research and Evaluation Officer, Diana Parkinson, reflects on the process of evaluating the CSA Practice Leads Programme in a social work context and how this has helped to shape our future work in this area.

Our Deputy Director for Knowledge and Practice Development highlights the importance of effective working with non-abusing parents and carers when there are concerns of intra-familial child sexual abuse.

In January, the CSA Centre hosted a workshop for research funders, with contributions from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) and the Office of National Statistics (ONS), to identify key knowledge gaps and discuss how to prioritise addressing these gaps. Here, our Deputy Director for Research and Evaluation shares her reflections on the day and highlights key points from the discussion.

This month the report from the joint targeted area inspections (JTAI) into the multi-agency response to child sexual abuse in the family environment revealed many areas for improvement, particularly around training needs and strategic responses. Here, our Deputy Director for Knowledge and Practice Development Anna Glinski reflects on the report and what needs to be done to ensure the multi-agency response dramatically improves.

In this blog, our Practice Improvement Advisor for multi-agency working Nick Marsh considers different approaches to safeguarding young people outside the home and highlights the importance of continuing to explicitly name and address sexual abuse within the wider safeguarding agenda. 

The CSA Centre’s new Advisors for Wales, Nici Evans and Mark Vaughan, introduce themselves and set out their vision for improving practice and increasing access to evidence around child sexual abuse in Wales.

As the CSA Centre publish an updated report on mapping current research into child sexual abuse, Dr Helen Beckett guest blogs about the importance of supporting the welfare of those researching child sexual abuse.

Last week the Office of National Statistics (ONS) published a child abuse compendium. The CSA Centre has been involved in the working group developing the child sexual abuse (CSA) chapter of the compendium over the past two years.  Senior Research and Evaluation Officer, Kairika Karsna, writes about what we can learn from the new report and some of the challenges it highlights.

In this blog Deputy Director for Knowledge and Practice Development, Anna Glinski, discusses the tension between the criminal and safeguarding burdens of proof and how this can impact on social work decision making where there are concerns of child sexual abuse.

Our Practice Improvement Advisor (Multi Agency), Nick Marsh, writes about his recent trip to Australia and sharing learning internationally about working with adolescents who have experienced extra-familial sexual abuse. 

This week the CSA centre published ‘Key messages from research on identifying and responding to disclosures of child sexual abuse’. In this blog our Practice Improvement Advisor for Social Work, Jane Wiffin, reflects on what those key messages mean for the safety of children and young people and what needs to be done within the statutory child protection system to best respond when children signal or speak out about the abuse and harm they are experiencing.

Senior Research and Evaluation Officer, Sherrelle Parke, reflects on the challenges local authorities face, and why bridging the gap with research knowledge is welcome on the front line.

Our Practice Improvement Advisor for Health, Dr Michelle Cutland, reflects on improving understanding of the paediatric medical examination for concerns of CSA and the importance of professional curiosity.

Our Director, Cassandra Harrison, announces a change in leadership for the CSA Centre.

This blog is part of a series where our Deputy Director for Research and Evaluation, Dr Sophie Laws, highlights research done by other people (not the CSA Centre) that improves understanding of child sexual abuse.

This blog is part of a series where our Deputy Director for Research and Evaluation, Dr Sophie Laws, highlights research done by other people (not the CSA Centre) that improves understanding of child sexual abuse.

Senior Research and Evaluation Officer Kairika Karsna explains how local authorities in Wales can help us uncover the truer extent of CSA encountered by social services.