005: “I Wanted Them All to Notice” – Key Insights on Child Sexual Abuse (Part 1)
One practitioners perspective on this essential overview
Hello and welcome to another edition of Practice Reflections, the Safeguarding CPD Newsletter. Apologies for their being no post last week. I hope you are having a wonderful week.
If you are a Social Worker in England, you have just two days left to complete the re-registration process with Social Work England.
Each week I usually share a research article which I come across. I offer my reflections as a Social Worker and consider how the article will influence my practice. However, the next few editions of this newsletter are going to be a little different as there has been a significant document published which will have a huge impact on Social Work practice. Therefore, I will be reflecting on the National Practice Review into Child Sexual Abuse within the Family Environment published by the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel.
Now, this is a fairly large document with a lot of information to absorb which has contributed to the delay in getting this to you. I spent 2 hours this week reading it and only managed to get about a third of the way through. I did toy with the idea of offering reflections based on the Executive Summary but feel that as a practitioner, it is really important to read the whole document. And as this newsletter is about documenting my own approach to CPD, and sharing those reflections, I felt that being transparent about the challenges fitting this in within my other commitments was more important than pretending I have read and understood the whole document so soon after publication.
Research Spotlight
The first thing to highlight about “I wanted them all to notice” Protecting Children and Responding to Child Sexual Abuse within the Family Environment is that it is 139 pages long and includes links to lots of research. The Centre of expertise on Child Sexual Abuse conducted a lot of the research which informs the Review Panel’s final 10 recommendations. Helpfully, the footnotes include links to various policy papers, research papers and other references. Which for me, adds to the weight of importance as the panel have clearly considered a lot of evidence within this review.
One thing that struck me was the acknowledgment that the child sexual abuse is an under-reported form of abuse. While there were over 130 rapid reviews, Serious Care Reviews and Local Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews submitted to the panel between 2018 and 2023 which featured child sexual abuse within the family environment, it is acknowledged that these reviews are not an exclusive overview of this type of harm. Indeed, when you look at the statistics of police recorded crimes of child sexual abuse offenses in 2022 alone there were 107,000 such offences. Yet in the period spanning between 2022/23, child sexual abuse was the reason for just 2,290 child protection plans (3.6% of all plans!).
There is no doubt that this national review is going to have implications for how agencies identify and respond to child sexual abuse within the family. The review acknowledges that this is only one part of the wider picture of the types of harm children experience. It offers possible reflections in that there has been a huge focus on risks external to the family. Often it seems that the contextual safeguarding risks such as child exploitation, county lines and online grooming has been a focus for policy and guidance.
Reading this review reminded me that Social Workers, and everyone else involved in the protection of children from harm, have to have so much knowledge to assess the real risks to children. However, there are particular challenges faced with identifying interfamilial sexual abuse. When you look at the statistical date into the demographics while children of any age may experience sexual abuse within the home, a third of victims and survivors reported that their abuse started before the age of 9. Another third report that is started between 9 and 12 with the remaining third reporting the abuse starting between the ages of 13 and 15. The report also identifies that children who have experienced sexual abuse within the family are more likely to be at risk of contextual safeguarding concerns later in their childhood.
While identifying sexual abuse within the family environment is challenging, the report has identified that all survivors and victims they spoke to indicate that they did try to tell someone. The Centre of Excellence on Child Sexual Abuse published a report in 2019 which presented evidence from research about identifying and responding to disclosures of sexual abuse from children. There are some stark findings which include that Social Workers are the least likely professionals children will disclose to because of a fear of what will happen once they do.
When I think of this research, I can’t help but feel that the current climate within social work only hinders practitioners ability to provide the space for children to open up and talk about their lived experience. The narrative from my own experience after spending 10 years working in Children’s safeguarding teams is that the sheer number of families on my caseload makes it difficult to dedicate the time and emotional energy needed to create the environment conducive to disclosure.
That is all for this week. I will be reflecting further on the rest of the document in next week’s edition of this newsletter. There is a lot of information in the report. If you have not yet read it, or begun to read, I would recommend you grab a brew and start looking through. This document will shape Social Work practice with children and families in the coming weeks and months. You can find it here
Peer Reflection Session
Given the narrative within Social Work and the wider interest in the findings within this report, I believe that we need to come together as professionals. Taking time to read, reflect and consider how this report may shape our practice will be essential for the lessons to be learnt. We have a public duty to consider how the way we work needs to evolve and grow.
Peer reflection is a critical aspect of professional development. As such, I plan to hold a series of free Peer Reflection Sessions for Social Workers and any other interested professionals for whom this review is relevant for. Whether you are a teacher, social worker, nurse, police officer, or anyone else who might come into contact with vulnerable children, taking time to learn from each other will ensure we keep children safe from harm and grow as professionals.
If you would be interested in attending this free session, please register your interest below and I will be in touch with a selection of dates.
That is all for this week. I hope you have found this useful. Please do share this among your network, either your colleagues or on social media. I really want as many people as possible to see that it is possible to fit CPD into busy lives.
Until next week,
Take Care.
Anthony
p.s please do reply by email if you have any questions.