Understanding and responding to harmful sexual behaviour

Children display a range of common and healthy sexual behaviours at different stages of their development. If their behaviour is considered to be outside of this range, it may be called ‘harmful’ if it does, or has the potential to, harm them or others.

Existing research suggests that children under-18 are responsible for a significant proportion of child sexual abuse, yet there remains little data on the scale of the full spectrum of harmful sexual behaviours. However, one third of all child protection assessments relating to child sexual abuse concerned a child or young person who had harmed another child or young person in England last year.

Perhaps unsurprisingly then, professionals working with children are likely to need to respond to concerns of harmful sexual behaviour during their careers. It is important that those in professional roles have the knowledge and understanding to respond and support children, and ensure their organisations are set up to maximise safety from harm. This one-day, CPD-certified course is designed to help professionals respond to and manage this behaviour, and to provide effective support to both the child(ren) and their parent(s) or carer(s).

Who is this course for?

This course is for all professionals working with children, young people and/or their parents or carers. This may include roles across education, health, children’s social care, youth offending, prisons, probation, police, adoption services, fostering services who work as part of a multi-agency arrangement or safeguarding partnership.

Who will run the course?

This course will be led by two expert trainers with significant experience in practice, training, and working within multi-agency safeguarding arrangements.

What can I expect to gain?

Following the course, you can expect to have a better understanding of:

• The scale and nature of child sexual abuse
• How the impact of child sexual abuse presents in children and young people
• How children may communicate their experiences of sexual abuse and the professional role in helping them do this
• How and why sexual abuse happens in families.

This course will give you a greater confidence in responding to concerns of intra-familial child sexual abuse and will also improve your ability to identify the potential signs and indicators of sexual abuse.
 

Thank you so much for organising the training. It was exactly what we needed and was excellent in every way
 
Head of Pre-Prep/Designated Safeguarding Lead

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 harmful sexual behaviour 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 harmful sexual behaviour.
  • applying our Safety planning in education guidance to manage situations of harmful sexual behaviour in schools or other settings.
  • safety planning advice.
  • assessing risk.
  • and considering appropriate interventions for both the child and their family.

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