Latest news and work

The latest news, insights, publications and opportunities from our team.

Developing your strategic response to child sexual abuse

We published Developing your strategic response to child sexual abuse: A guide for safeguarding children partnerships, our resource guide which enables partnerships to build an effective, evidence-based strategy covering each part of their response to child sexual abuse. 

Designed for all those working with local and regional safeguarding children partnerships, the guide covers each level the response to all forms of child sexual abuse – from top-level governance and accountability, to an effective action plan that professionals everywhere, in each agency, can easily follow. Download the free guide today.

Read Developing your strategic response
Child on a sofa sat across from a professional in a support session

Support Matters 2025

We have published Support Matters 2025 – our latest comprehensive study on the current landscape of service provision in response to child sexual abuse in England & Wales.

In our new report, we found that services providing vital support to victims of child sexual abuse are at a critical point, with almost two thirds struggling to maintain their capacity and meet demand. Find out more in the full report.

Read Support Matters
A female teacher sat at a table next to a boy in a classroom. The teacher looks concerned and is listening to the boy

Communicating with children guide: 2025 update

We have updated our essential Communicating with children guide, to help professionals learn how to listen to and understand all children when concerned about sexual abuse.

The Communicating with children guide gives everyone who works with children accessible guidance on talking with children about child sexual abuse. Our latest version of the guide provides new guidance on how to support children with a variety of different communication needs so professionals can provide all children with the opportunity to communicate about what happened to them.

Download the updated guide
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What you need to know about child sexual abuse

Sadly, child sexual abuse is a very common form of harm. We estimate that 1 in 10 children are sexually abused by the age of 16 in England and Wales. To identify, respond to and prevent this abuse, we need to have a good understanding of the essential facts about it.

What you need to know about child sexual abuse is our accessible new overview introducing the topic of child sexual abuse, helping readers build an informed understanding of; what we know about the scale and nature of abuse, how to identify and respond to abuse, its impact, and what we can do to help children, adults and families recover and move forward.

 

Read What you need to know
Social worker and girl playing with stress toys on a dining table.

Child sexual abuse in 2023/24: Trends in official data

Our latest annual Trends in official data report collates of the latest data across local authorities, policing, criminal justice, sexual assault referral centres and, for the first time, data on what happens following convictions of child sexual abuse offences, to explore how child sexual abuse is being identified and responded to in England and Wales in 2023/24.

The new analysis shows that the number of people charged and convicted following child sexual abuse offences both increased, yet the number of children with a protection plan for sexual abuse in England fell to it’s lowest level in thirty years – making up just 3.5% of all new plans in 2023/24. Read all the trends in the report below.

Read Trends in official data

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