NEW: Sibling sexual behaviour and abuse: A course for safeguarding professionals

It is thought that between a quarter and a half of all harmful sexual behaviour – sexual discussions or acts that are inappropriate for a child’s age or stage of development – displayed by children and young people, involve sibling(s) or close family relatives such as cousins, nephews and nieces. Recognising and responding to incidents of sibling sexual behaviour and abuse can be difficult for professionals, not least because it often challenges commonly held conceptions of what sibling relationships are like.

This one-day course aims to equip professionals working with children, young people and families with an understanding of how to identify when sibling sexual behaviour is of concern and to recognise when sibling sexual behaviour becomes abusive. Furthermore, it aims to provide professionals with a greater understanding of the need to take a whole family approach and provides information on how to do this. The course aims to develop participants’ understanding of how to carry out assessment and intervention with families affected by sibling sexual abuse.

We recommend that participants on this course have prior knowledge of child sexual abuse or have attended one of our one-day courses on intra-familial child sexual abuse.

Who is this course for?

This course is for any professional who is working in a safeguarding role. It is most useful for those working across children’s social care, health, education, police, youth justice, fostering and adoption services and any other relevant services in contact with children, young people, parent(s) or carer(s).

The course is particularly effective for professionals who have attended the full-day course on children and young people who have displayed harmful sexual behaviour.

What you can expect to learn

Following this course you can expect to have:

• A greater understanding of the nature of sibling sexual behaviour and an improved ability to recognise when this behaviour becomes problematic and/or abusive.
• A greater understanding of the prevalence of, and possible pathways to, sibling sexual abuse.
• Greater confidence in identifying sibling sexual abuse.
• Greater confidence in responding to sibling sexual abuse.
• Greater confidence in developing robust and effective safety plans to support children and families to manage the risk of further abuse.
• Greater confidence in adopting a whole family approach to support families affected by sibling sexual abuse.

Consultation Package Extension

For an additional £150 per hour, we now offer dedicated post-training consultation sessions facilitated by qualified professionals. These sessions will support practitioners to apply their learning to cases of sibling sexual abuse that they are encountering in practice. In the event that participants do not have a case to discuss, case studies will be provided.

To support this course, we would recommend three or six consultation sessions lasting two hours each, over the course of three to six months.

These sessions will focus on:

• utilising what we know from the research about pathways into sibling sexual abuse.
• applying our Sibling sexual behaviour and abuse guidance to planning and decision-making.
• safety planning advice.
• assessing risk.
• and considering appropriate interventions for both the child and their family.

Email training@csacentre.org.uk for more information.