Workshop five – Talking to children

Safeguarding partners should take necessary steps to ensure that all practitioners in their area (including foster carers) understand and are confident in talking directly to children, and families, about concerns of sexual abuse, taking due account of ethnicity, language and disability. Safeguarding partners need to ensure that there are sensitive and effective plans to address the impact on children of any decision to end an investigation.

 

National review into child sexual abuse within the family environment, Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel (2024)

About the workshop

This workshop is part five of six online sessions to support safeguarding partners to reflect, plan and lead the implementation the recommendations for Safeguarding Partners in England set out in the 2024 National review into child sexual abuse within the family environment.

The workshop is focused on Recommendation five, for safeguarding partners to take necessary steps to ensure that professionals understand and are confident in talking directly to children, and families, about concerns of sexual abuse.

This workshop will discuss the findings from the report that led to this recommendation specifically how professionals, including foster carers, should be able and confident to speak directly to children and their families about sexual abuse. We will focus on how safeguarding partners can support their workforce to have the knowledge andbe able to do this. With a focus on how to give professionals the knowledge and confidence to act, using the CSA Centre’s Communicating with Children Guide. In this session we will explain what may be going on for children when they are being sexually abused, what prevents them from talking about their abuse, and what professionals can do to help children speak about what is happening.

The session will have include how to account of ethnicity, language and disability and how to ensure sensitive and effective plans are in place for children at the end of any police investigation.

About the speakers 

Dr Natasha Sabin is a Forensic Psychologist with professional experience in child sexual abuse, and the author of our Developing your strategic response guide. She has worked within Youth Justice as a practitioner and manager specialising in harmful sexual behaviour. Natasha has also had roles within secure hospitals and custodial environments where she has predominantly worked with adult males who have committed sexual offences. Natasha is a visiting lecturer at the University of Birmingham, facilitating teaching sessions to Forensic and Clinical Psychologists in training. 

Lorraine Myles is the CSA Centre’s Practice Improvement Advisor for education and is a qualified teacher with almost 30 years’ experience in education, from key stage one to four. Starting out in mainstream schools, Lorraine moved into the special education sector where she worked extensively with children and young people who experienced abuse and trauma. 

What is the National review into child sexual abuse within the family environment?

In 2024, the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel published their National review into child sexual abuse within the family environment, conducted by the CSA Centre. It studied the experience of 193 individual children and uncovered significant and long‑standing systemic issues in the identification of and response to child sexual abuse in family settings. Sadly, the review found that children who are sexually abused are frequently not being identified by practitioners, nor are they receiving the response needed for their ongoing safety and recovery.

The final report, “I wanted them all to notice”: Protecting children and responding to child sexual abuse within the family environment, made 10 recommendations for national government and a further six recommendations for local safeguarding partnerships which they can implement immediately without waiting for changes at a national level.

About the workshop series

This is part one in our Strengthening multi-agency leadership in responding to intra-familial child sexual abuse series of workshops. Each free session takes a closer look at the recommendations of the National review into child sexual abuse within the family environment. Throughout the year we are holding five more workshops covering topics from improving professional knowledge, skills and practice, to how to talk to children about sexual abuse.

You can find out more about the series here, and book your place on the next sessions below or from our Events page.