Harmful Sexual
Behaviour
The development of an operational framework for
children and young people who sexually harm
Sherry Malik
Director of
Children’s Services
Development &
Delivery, NSPCC
2
Innovation session
• Brief research review – the problem of children and
young people with harmful sexual behaviours
• Co-ordinated partnership response – the
development of an operational framework for
children and young people who sexually harm
• How it feels to work with these issues and a local
response from Surrey County Council
• Where are we now, next steps and how to get
involved
3
The scale and
evidence of the
problem
Dez Holmes,
Director,
Research in
Practice
4
Children and young people with
harmful sexual behaviours
Scale of the problem
• children and young people account for
approximately a quarter of all convictions against
victims of all ages (Vizard, 2004)
• ...and a third of all sexual abuse coming to the
attention of the professional system in the UK
(Erooga and Masson, 2006)
• …65.9% of the contact sexual abuse reported by
children and young people was perpetrated by
other children and young people under the age of
18 (Radford et al, 2011)
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Evidence of system failure
"It would be hard to describe the current state of responses and
services to families of young people who commit sexual
assaults in terms other than disorganised, sporadic and
unpredictable”
"Treatment with children and YP was fundamentally founded on
a set of unproven assumptions drawn from theories about
adult pedophilia... which had shaded into rigid dogma... had to
led to juvenile treatment practices that were a mismatch for
children and teens"
A contested area of policy and practice
• Hidden nature of abuse makes recognition difficult
• Stigma and shame may lead to under-reporting
• Dual identities of perpetrator/victim conceptually
challenging
• Power of language
• Currently no national strategy or overarching
service delivery framework
A highly diverse group
• Vast majority of adolescents with sexually abusive
behaviours are male
• Girls with abusive sexual behaviours come from
particularly chaotic and dysfunctional family
backgrounds, with higher levels of sexual
victimisation and other abuse
• Young learning disabled people = particularly
vulnerable group
Young people with HSB
• Highly problematic family backgrounds and multiple
disadvantages and adversities
• High rates of victimisation and trauma; social skills
deficits; lack of sexual knowledge; social anxiety
• Most target victims known to them, in many cases
family members (intra-familial abuse)
• Sexual behaviours online: YP with these behaviours
may not share the backgrounds and risk profiles of
those who commit contact sexual offences
Parents
• Facing a child’s HSB can be a profoundly difficult
experience and parenting competence and
resources can be undermined. Many parents are
lonely and isolated and face social stigma and
hostility in response to their child’s behaviour
• Attention should be given to identifying and building
upon family strengths
Assessment and interventions
resiliencefocused
evidencebased
tiered
holistic
proportion
ate
multimodal
strengthsbased
Coordinated responses
• Lack of early intervention
• Few examples of holistic, multi-agency assessments or
interventions
• Case management often compromised by poor
communication and information sharing
So
• No longer working together on HSB?
• Role of LSCBs and MAPPAs?
• Needs analysis
Developing an
operational
framework for
HSB
Pat Branigan,
NSPCC
17
The operational framework will:
develop responses
ranging from early
community based
assessment and
intervention with low
risk cases to intensive
work with the highest
risk
promote effective
assessment as the
key to ensuring that
cases enter the right
part of the system
promote the
advantage of
involving frontline
agencies and workers
in earlier recognition
activity (training for
education staff,
residential workers,
and foster carers)
assessment, and
intervention
encourage interagency work
designed to reduce
the isolation and
anxieties that are
commonly felt in
decision making for
this group
promote the use of a
shared workforce
language, skills and
training exchange and
development of
appropriate local peer
support systems
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The process so far
Co-production
and
proportionate
response
Based on
learning from
the last 20 years
and in the
context of the
current
government
‘terms of trade’
A framework
developed
alongside an
implementation
plan
Input, support
and challenge
from the
frontline in
development
A ‘product’ by
the end of 2014
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Development group
NSPCC initiated and
co-ordinated.
Includes:
15 local areas
involved through the
practice working
group
Office for the
Children’s
commissioner, LGA,
linking with NICE
Observers from central
government
departments – Home
Office, DH, CAMHS
Academics,
independent experts,
authors and research
partners on HSB
Large national charities NSPCC, Action for
Children, Lucy Faithfull,
Barnados, Brook, Ms
Understood Partnership
YJB, Police, CEOP,
NOMS/MAPPA, AIM
Associates, CAPE,
Glebe House
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Where are we now
Communication
plan
Implementation
planning group
Framework
development
overview group
Framework
development
group
Piloting and
feedback
Practice
working group
21
Amanda
Carpenter-Jago
Team manager ACT
Surrey County
Council
22
Current issues
Responding to Harmful Sexualised Behaviours – feedback from our
practice working group
Lack of appropriate training and support for staff across the lead
agencies regarding harmful sexualised behaviours in children and
young people
Inconsistent responses to allegations regarding harmful sexualised
behaviours in children and young people
Poor clarity around communication and sharing of information
following an allegation or incident of harmful sexualised behaviour
Service delivery – need for joined up thinking across all of the lead
agencies not only for assessment but also intervention and support
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How it feels to work in this environment
Feedback from our practice working group
“No clarity
[regarding] agency
roles and
responsibilities”
“Harmful sexual
behaviour in children
and young people
must be viewed as an
ongoing need, not a
current trend or hot
topic”
“Complete lack of
support consistent
quality supervision, debriefing, consultation
and appropriate
counselling facilities for
all professionals who
work with children and
young people with
harmful sexual
behaviours”
“At times
professionals are
frightened of
discussing
allegations with
children and
young people”
Surrey County Council’s Response
ACT (Assessment, Consultation and Therapy) is part of
Countywide Services, Children’s Services, Surrey County
Council, established in 1995.
Community based therapeutic service that provides
consultation, assessments, post assessment therapeutic
treatment plans and training to reduce the risk of children
and young people continuing to harm sexually into
adulthood, and protection strategies to safeguard the wider
community.
Works with the families and carers of children and young
people to help their understanding of what has happened, to
enable them to support their child or young person whilst
they attend ACT.
During the period April 2013 and March 2014 ACT received over
three hundred enquiries.
ACT – aims to….
ACT
• work with the community to reduce
harmful sexual behaviour by children
and young people
• assess children and young people
whose sexual behaviour is harmful or
problematic
• provide children and young people with
a therapy service to assist in the
prevention of their harmful sexual
behaviour
• co-ordinate intervention in Surrey with
children and young people who have
been harmful sexually
• to offer advice, consultation and training
to other practitioners, teams and
professional agencies
• to contribute to research and evaluation
Next steps
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If nothing is done……..
Children and young people
account for approximately a
quarter of all convictions
against victims of all ages
and a third of all sexual
abuse coming to the
attention of the professional
system in the UK.
“We owe it to these children and young
people to assist them to understand their
harmful sexual behaviour and support
them to hopefully move away from such
behaviour and have a positive future. We
also owe it to the potential victims of these
children and young people they may create
if their harmful sexual behaviour is not
addressed as soon as possible”
Professional who works with children and young people with
sexually harmful behaviours
Importance of this work needs to be finally recognised nationally.
An operational framework is the first step towards a strategic, statutorily
fully supported and consistent approach across all of the lead agencies
responsible for safeguarding and care of children and young people.
Questions
• Based on what you have heard how might this help
working in your local area on HSB issues?
• What would be the barriers to adopting and
embedding such an operational framework in your
local area?
• Are you interested in being kept informed and even
being a pilot area for this framework in 2015?
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Thank You
Photography by Tom Hull. The children pictured are volunteers and models.
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