Part B: Audit

As noted in Part A above, the audit is divided into six broad areas of practice, each of which has prompts to help you develop an understanding of your education setting’s current practice in response to child sexual abuse. Completing the audit will give you an indication of where practice is secure and help you identify any gaps in practice.

This division enables the audits of the different areas of practice to be led and ‘owned’ by the most appropriate staff members; allows the full audit to be completed in sections rather than all at once if necessary; and helps all staff to think about their response to child sexual abuse in a structured way.

Paragraph 345 of Keeping Children Safe in Education 2025 states:

“Good safeguarding requires a continuing commitment from governing bodies, proprietors, and all staff to ensure the safety and welfare of children is embedded in all of the organisation’s processes and procedures and consequentially enshrined in its ethos.”

When your setting genuinely lives its values around safe and respectful relationships, children are more likely to trust adults enough to seek help. Having a clear commitment that promotes safe and respectful relationships can be a highly protective factor – but it needs all staff to feel able to share concerns, including those relating to a colleague’s inappropriate behaviour., no matter what position they each hold in your setting.

Such a commitment helps to prevent child sexual abuse by reducing risk, increasing early identification, and creating environments in which children feel secure and supported. Statutory safeguarding guidance emphasises that safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility, and that all staff must help provide a safe environment for children to learn.

An ethos of respectful relationships helps to support the curriculum and wider practice that teaches children about boundaries, consent, respect, and where to get help. It also helps your setting to respond better when concerns arise, by ensuring that your staff act consistently, calmly and in line with safeguarding procedures.

In settings where a culture of respectful relationships is ‘alive’ in daily practice, children are more likely view the adults around them as trustworthy, and recognise where those adults’ behaviour may be inappropriate or abusive – and, if they seek help, they will have confidence that they will be listened to.

All education staff – from early years settings through to post 16 provision – must be equipped to notice and respond to the signs and indicators of child sexual abuse, and to prevent that abuse. Children may not tell anyone at the time (or ever feel able to tell anyone) about sexual abuse, for a variety of reasons: they may feel fear, shame, confusion, or loyalty to the abuser; they may be coerced or threatened; or they may not recognise what is happening to them as harmful. The CSA Centre’s What You Need to Know about Child Sexual Abuse advises all professionals:

“Children may display different signs of having been abused, including emotional, behavioural and/or physical signs. Be alert too for indicators of harm in the people around the child, or vulnerabilities in the family or environment around them.”

Education staff are uniquely placed to notice concerns early or spot changes over time, after which they can take action to prevent harm from continuing or escalating. Paragraphs 4 and 50 of Keeping Children Safe in Education 2025 highlight that, while children may not feel ready or know how to tell someone, this should not stop staff from exercising professional curiosity and intervening when they have concerns.

“School and college staff are particularly important, as they are in a position to identify concerns early, provide help for children, promote children’s welfare and prevent concerns from escalating. … If staff have any concerns about a child’s welfare, they should act on them immediately.”

When staff feel equipped with knowledge and confidence about how to talk to children and identify signs and indicators of possible sexual abuse, they are better able to protect children and prevent further harm. As the CSA Centre’s Key Messages from Research on Identifying and Responding to Disclosures of Child Sexual Abuse notes:

“Teachers are the professionals to whom children will most commonly disclose, but the disclosure process can be helped or hindered by the way in which any professional engages with a child.”

High-quality, sensitively delivered PSHE/RSE can be a highly protective factor for children. It helps them to understand and develop safe, respectful relationships and learn about issues such as personal boundaries, consent, abuse, grooming, coercion and harassment. It can also help children to recognise harm, and give them the language and confidence to tell someone about any concerns they might have – while giving staff opportunities to interact with children and learn what issues most affect them. As the PSHE Association website says:

“RSE supports pupils to develop healthy relationships in various contexts, and to know when to seek help.”

Reviews by both Estyn and Ofsted have highlighted that pupils want clearer teaching about topics that are important to them; for PSHE and RSE curriculums to be effective, they need to align with what is happening in children’s lives. To help achieve that, children need well-planned, safe and inclusive opportunities to share what is important to them – and their education settings should also seek their views about how content is delivered and how it might be improved. The UK Government’s Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education Guidance acknowledges:

“Listening and responding to the views of pupils and parents helps to ensure that RSHE meets pupils’ needs and that topics are taught at the right time to support children to build positive relationships and avoid harms before they occur.”

An understanding of trauma-informed practice is crucial when responding to concerns about sexual abuse, because trauma can shape how children behave, communicate and talk to adults. Many children are embarrassed, threatened, or unable to describe what is happening; as a consequence, their behaviour may change or be difficult to make sense of or understand. Paragraph 538 of Keeping Children Safe in Education 2025 advises:

“Children who have experienced sexual violence display a very wide range of responses to their experience, including in some cases clear signs of trauma, physical and emotional responses, or no overt signs at all. Schools and colleges should remain alert to the possible challenges of detecting those signs and show sensitivity to the needs of the child (e.g. about attendance in lessons) irrespective of how overt the child’s distress is.”

Staff in your setting may need to consider additional factors in order to understand fully the experiences of children from different backgrounds or with different characteristics, and those with certain special educational needs or disabilities; our advice guides (see Appendix 1) contain supporting information which can help your thinking.

Examples of trauma-informed practice include listening calmly, avoiding repeated questioning, being transparent about what needs to happen next, and ensuring that the child is reassured and not blamed. These help staff to:

• prioritise the child’s safety, trust and empowerment – children who feel believed and supported are more likely to engage with help
• look beyond presenting behaviour
• respond in ways that reduce re-traumatisation.

Children’s vulnerability to sexual abuse can be influenced by their peer groups, neighbourhoods, local venues and online spaces; engaging with community partners can help your setting to understand where and how risks are emerging locally (for example, by identifying unsupervised spaces, online trends, or dynamics between groups of children). Paragraph 66 of Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023 states:

“Strong, effective multi-agency safeguarding arrangements should be responsive to local circumstances and engage the right people in a collaborative way. This approach requires flexibility from all relevant agencies, to enable joint identification and response to existing and emerging needs, and to agree priorities to improve outcomes for children.”

Engaging with the wider community (including families, local services, faith/community groups, and youth services) and professional networks (such as local safeguarding partners, designated safeguarding lead/professional networks, local health services, children’s social care, the police, and specialist services) is important because child sexual abuse risk is shaped by context, and no single setting is likely to hold the full picture.

The introduction to Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023 states:

“[Protecting and supporting children] requires individuals, agencies, and organisations to be clear about their own and each other’s roles and responsibilities, and how they work together. … Effective safeguarding means practitioners should understand and be sensitive to factors, including economic and social circumstances and ethnicity, which can impact children and families’ lives.”

Community engagement helps your setting to better understand the lived experiences for the children in your care, and to avoid making assumptions. It can also contribute to improving how individuals within communities seek help when they need it.

Responding to incidents or concerns about child sexual abuse promptly, fairly and consistently is essential: it protects children from further harm, builds trust so that children feel able to speak up, and helps your setting to meet its safeguarding duties in a child‑centred way. It also reduces the risk of unsafe practice (such as delay, minimisation, or inappropriate responses) and supports proportionate decision‑making for everyone involved.

• When concerns are acted on promptly, your setting can take immediate protective action. This can safeguard children by stopping the abuse or preventing escalation.
• A fair response avoids victim‑blaming, does not minimise the harm that a child has suffered, is not based on assumptions, and can help the child feel listened to and supported.
• A consistent response helps to reduce the impact of unconscious bias and ensures that children receive similar levels of support – tailored to their needs – regardless of their background, vulnerability, disability, language needs, or identity.

As project leader, you should study the audit template [Download, .docx 237 KB] carefully before commencing the audit, and refer to the audit guide [Download, PDF 200 KB] for advice on populating the template with your findings. Appendix 2 shows the structure of the audit template; for each area of practice, it lists the key themes and the elements of knowledge/practice to be audited, as well as the CSA Centre resources relevant to that theme.

We recommend that you also have an early conversation with each of your ‘area coordinators’ – the colleagues you have asked to lead the audit of each area of practice – to explain why they have been chosen and why it is important to gain an understanding of your setting’s practice in that area (see section A2).

You may decide that the colleague(s) responsible for completing each audit area would benefit from a short briefing session to go through the template and guide, so they understand how the audit stage should be conducted.

The audit is designed to be completed in three stages. Across all stages, you as project leader hold overall responsibility for coordinating the process, while your area coordinators are responsible for gathering and presenting evidence for their allocated area.

In terms of overall effort, the audit is designed to be manageable; the work is spread across a project leader and area coordinators working largely in parallel, so no single person carries the full load. The suggested timings below are estimates and will depend on the size of your setting. In addition, the time required will vary depending on whether surveys and/or focus groups are used to gather views, and how well existing meeting structures can be drawn on. How long the audit takes from start to finish will depend on your staff availability and the scope of the approach you take.

Led by the project leader

Estimated time: 1 hour

Bring together all area coordinators for a structured briefing. Use this session to:

• explain the purpose and structure of the audit
• walk through the audit template together, so everyone understands how evidence should be recorded and rated
• confirm which colleague(s) are coordinating each of the six areas
• agree a timeline for Stages 2 and 3, including a date for the reflection and rating meeting
• discuss whether to use pupil surveys, staff surveys or focus groups (see Chapter B3 below) – and, if so, agree who will lead these and when.

Led by each area coordinator, working independently between Stages 1 and 3

Estimated time per area coordinator: 1–3 hours for core evidence gathering, plus additional time if surveys and/or focus groups are used

Following the introductory meeting, each area coordinator gathers evidence for their area of practice. They should draw on a range of sources to build a rounded picture of how child sexual abuse is currently noticed, responded to and prevented in your setting; methods used may include brief observations, short conversations with relevant colleagues, and a review of relevant documents, policies or records.

We estimate that this core evidence-gathering activity is likely to take up to three hours for each area of practice. More time will be required if pupil/staff surveys or focus groups are used to inform any of the six areas – but the additional insights that these can provide are valuable and worth the extra time and effort where possible.

As they conduct the audit, the area coordinators should note their evidence and any areas for improvement that they identify, ready to present their findings at the reflection and rating meeting.

Facilitated by the project leader; all area coordinators attend and present their findings

Estimated time: 1–1.5 hours

Once the evidence gathering is complete, bring the group back together for a session where:

• each area coordinator briefly presents the evidence they have gathered for their area of practice
• the group discusses and agrees a rating for each line of enquiry, placing evidence under the most accurate descriptor (‘A consistently strong feature’, ‘Some good practice’, or ‘An emerging area of practice’)
• promising practice and gaps in practice are noted
• initial ideas for the improvement plan are captured in the final column of the audit template.

Because each area coordinator should arrive prepared with their evidence, this meeting is focused on discussion and recording rather than starting from scratch; hence it can be completed in a relatively short time.

A broad range of evidence will strengthen your assessment of current practice in each area of the audit. Consider how you can represent a wide range of stakeholders from across your setting, so that different views and perspectives can inform your assessment. To assist you, we have produced:

• questions for each area of practice, which you can use to lead discussions with staff, pupils and/or parents [Download, .docx 230 KB] and with governors/trustees [Download, .docx 220 KB]
• sample pupil surveys [Download, .docx 249 KB] for different age groups
• a sample staff survey [Download, .docx 231 KB].

The surveys and the stakeholder discussions are all optional; you can use any or all of them. Alternatively, you can complete your audit using none of them, but you may then capture a less complete picture of your key stakeholders’ views and experiences.

Pupil and staff surveys provide a more rounded evidence base for the audit by capturing the lived experiences, confidence levels and perceptions of those at the heart of your setting; they can help identify hidden strengths and gaps in practice, ensuring that your improvement plan is genuinely informed by the voices of the people it is designed to support and protect. In our work to pilot the framework, surveying pupils in particular was found to provide valuable insights which other evidence-gathering methods may have been less likely to reveal, but it did involve additional work; you may be able to gain similar learning through focus groups.

Whatever methods you use to gather stakeholder views, and especially if you conduct surveys, make sure you allow time to prepare, deliver and review them so they can inform your improvement plan.

[1] Project leader in one of the schools that piloted the whole-school approach.