The Centre of expertise on child sexual abuse (CSA Centre)

📢 This morning, the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel published the results of their National Review into child sexual abuse within the family environment - conducted by the CSA Centre. For the past 12 months, the CSA Centre worked with the Panel to produce a new report exploring the challenges in the identification, assessment and response to child sexual abuse. The review focuses on the experiences of 193 children who were sexually abused in the family environment. Sadly, for many of these children the abuse they experienced was not identified by professionals, or they did not get the support needed for their safety or recovery. The report - "I wanted them all to notice" - sets out 10 national recommendations which could fundamentally transform the identification of abuse and the response that children and families receive. Please note the children’s experiences reviewed in this report are upsetting. Read the report on the website: https://lnkd.in/eGJW-3u2

🔔 Our popular free webinar series continues in 2025 with new dates to help you use our helpful resources in practice. In our engaging 1-hour online sessions, we introduce our evidence based, practical guides and tools to help professionals use them in their own work. Upcoming sessions including: 👉12:30-13:30, 9th April: Spotting the signs and indicators of child sexual abuse https://lnkd.in/eewzDtfa 👉09:00-10:00, 14th May: Supporting parents / carers when their child may have been sexually abused (Limited spaces left) https://lnkd.in/eVCaAbX2 👉 16:00-17:00, 20th May: Responding to harmful sexual behaviour in education settings https://lnkd.in/eVCaAbX2   Find these webinars and more on the CSA Centre website. Reserve your free spot to avoid missing out: https://lnkd.in/erhsCga2

It's Sexual Abuse and Sexual Violence Awareness Week 2025. The focus this week may have affected you, or made you reflect on what might be going on for a child you work with - these CSA Centre resources can help you find support and advice. If you have been impacted by childhood sexual abuse, or are worried that a child has been or is being abused, there are services that can help. Our Get support page shows you the details of organisations who can offer immediate advice and assistance if you have concerns, and you can search our directory of over 350 national and local services for victims, survivors and their families to find support: https://lnkd.in/etJPxjkr It is also important to take care of yourself if you work with children, adults and families affected by child sexual abuse, especially when it is a prominent topic in conversations around us - in and outside of work. To help, part 4 of our Using supervision and team meetings guide provides useful advice on different ways you can support your colleagues, team members and yourself :https://lnkd.in/e6d9WgiR #Itsnotokay

💻 After recent announcements about artificial intelligence and child sexual abuse material, it can be useful for professionals to revisit some of the latest evidence on responding to child sexual abuse in online contexts. Digital technology is likely to feature in most child sexual abuse today. Many professionals may think that they need to be ‘experts’ to identify to this kind of abuse, but research indicates they likely have core skills they need to respond. Our quick-read Key messages from research on child sexual abuse by adults in online contexts is designed to help professionals easily learn more about this kind of harm, so they can respond with confidence. Read the key messages here: https://lnkd.in/eFmyS2HS

As a professional working with children, adults and families, it’s important to remember that you already have the core skills you need to respond to #AI generated child sexual abuse material. This weekend, the Government announced plans to outlaw apps designed to create artificially generated child sexual abuse material. It is fundamentally harmful to produce any child sexual abuse material, including when it is produced using AI. It’s understandable that professionals working with children might be concerned about the impact of artificially generated images may have on their ability to the identify and respond to child sexual abuse. But professionals can use the skills they already have to confidently respond. Last summer, we wrote a blog post for professionals to help them find out more about artificially generated child sexual abuse material and how to respond to if they're worried a child has been featured in this material, or an adult or child is reading it themselves. Read the post on the CSA Centre website: https://lnkd.in/ewtCftU3

🔔 NEW: Today we have launched our new guide for Funders and commissioners of child sexual abuse services. Timely, effective support for children, families and adults can play a crucial role in mitigating the impacts of child sexual abuse and can be vital in preventing and disrupting abuse. Funding and commissioning them requires careful, thoughtful planning, yet we know that current provision levels are not meeting critical need across England and Wales. Our new guide, Funding and commissioning child sexual abuse services, explains why support provision is so important and offers funders and commissioners a structured approach to developing and improving support provision. In four comprehensive parts, the resource signposts each stage of the commissioning cycle: analysing local need for support, planning targeted interventions, delivering effective support services, and rigorously reviewing outcomes. Download the new guide for free on the CSA Centre website: https://lnkd.in/e8Gp5_hW

🕛 12pm Wednesday 29th January: Join our free webinar to find out how to put our Child Sexual Abuse Response Pathway into practice. In this free lunch and learn session, our team will show you how to use our Response Pathway to protect and support children and their families when there are concerns of sexual abuse. You’ll hear advice and examples of how to use the interactive resource and how it supports professionals to meet the needs of children and their families. Learn more about how the Response Pathway can help you build deeper understanding of the role you, and your colleagues, can play to support the children you work with. Book your free spot today: https://lnkd.in/eFtspy-P

How common is child sexual abuse? Who are the victims of child sexual abuse? And who sexually abuses children? All of these questions have been discussed over the past week, and there’s a lot we can take from existing data to help answer them. We can also use this data to better understand the gaps we need to address to help professionals identify and respond to victims, survivors and families affected by abuse. As a society we need to wake up to the scale of sexual abuse of children in all the forms and ways it is perpetrated, and we must to look to research, evidence and practice to help ensure we respond effectively and appropriately in all these contexts. Please read through our summary below to see what we can already learn from existing evidence today. The CSA Centre has produced a wealth of resources for people who work with children to help build your knowledge skills and confidence on identifying and responding to child sexual abuse. Visit our website here: https://lnkd.in/guqC259h

🔔 New: 2024 was a busy and productive year for the CSA Centre. Read our Director Ian Dean’s article which looks back at our work, and how it can continue to improve our understanding of child sexual abuse. Over the last 12 months, our team has produced important new research, practice guidance and innovative online tools, and collaborated with local partnerships up and down the country to improve understanding and responses to child sexual abuse. Read Ian's reflection on this key work - all designed to help professionals in their vital work to protect and support children and families.

If you, someone you care for, or someone you are working with, needs to find support this month, there are services in England and Wales who can help 👇   With a postcode search or a click on a map, you can find the details of local and national support services via our get support page. We also provide quick links to organisations who can offer advice and help protect a child if you have any concerns, so you can be reassured that you are doing the right thing.   Visit our get support page here: https://lnkd.in/gkGuzzer