Child Sexual Abuse
As part of a national campaign led by The Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse (CSA Centre), the GSCP launched ‘ The Prioritising Child Sexual Abuse Conference’ in June (2024), with the ambition to improve local practice regarding CSA.
The event was delivered by key experts and consultants from the CSA Centre and was an opportunity for the partnership to learn, share knowledge, insight, and resources with other professionals across the Partnership.
We encourage you to visit the CSA Centre website to learn more about their work, and to access their latest research and resources www.csacentre.org.uk
Please also visit the NSPCC for more information and resources www.nspcc.org.uk
See below child sexual abuse conference presentations - June 2024
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Communicating with children -
Harmful Sexual Behaviour online contexts -
Tackling Online Harm Campaign Webinar -
Impact -
Managing risk and trauma -
Response Pathway -
Safety planning in education -
Scale and nature -
Sibling sexual behaviour -
Signs and indicators -
Supporting parents and carers -
Working with adult survivors
Supporting Professionals in Identification and Response
The recent Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA Report 2022) highlighted the past failures to protect children from sexual abuse and to support those who have been harmed. It stressed that the impact of these failings for these children is incalculable.
There are nearly 13 million children in England and Wales, each of whom needs and deserves to be protected from harm. Babies, toddlers and children are potentially at risk, with current estimates indicating that 1 in 6 girls and 1 in 20 boys experience child sexual abuse before the age of 16. In March 2020, the Office for National Statistics estimated that 3.1 million adults in England and Wales had experienced sexual abuse before the age of 16. Reflecting the guiding principle that the child’s welfare is paramount, the Inquiry’s recommendations are focused on making England and Wales places for children to grow up safely and thrive.
(IICSA– October 2022),
It is a key priority of the GSCP to better understand the prevalence of Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation in Gloucestershire and gaps in service provision and professional knowledge.
In the last year, the GSCP has been working alongside the NSPCC and the CSA Centre of Expertise, to better understand and strengthen our multi-agency responses to CSA and to prevent and protect children being harmed by sexual abuse and exploitation.
The Partnership recognises the need to build Gloucestershire professionals’ confidence in effectively identifying and responding to child sexual abuse, and to identify how best we can all work to support children and families.
The GSCP will be continuing to offer new learning opportunities and resources to highlight the importance of this work and to promote and support professionals to effectively identify and respond to the sexual abuse of children.