Numerous safeguarding practice reviews have told us that too much emphasis was placed by professionals on the young people to keep themselves safe through undertaking ‘keep safe’ work. This guidance has been written to ensure that the recommendations from these safeguarding reviews are embedded in our practice.
‘Keep safe’ work is normally completed by social workers, early help practitioners or education professionals directly with a young person. The work typically involves providing young people with general advice that may help them to identify risks and to keep themselves safe in different scenarios. In the context of concerns around child sexual abuse, tools provided by the NSPCC such as the PANTS resources, are often used as part of this ‘keep safe’ approach.
Such programmes can play a helpful part in young people’s life education. However, they should never be used in a protective context.
Where there are concerns that a child or young person has experienced, or is at risk of, sexual abuse, it is the responsibility of the safeguarding partner agencies to agree and implement actions that will keep them safe from harm. Whilst these agencies should seek to engage and include the young person as fully as possible in the safeguarding process, the young person is not responsible for the plan, nor for its effective implementation.
To introduce a young person who has experienced or is at risk of sexual abuse to a keep safe programme is not merely inappropriate; it carries the risks of further harm to them:
It may imply to the child that they are responsible for any abuse they have experienced; in other words, it is victim-blaming and is likely further to weaken the young person’s sense of self-worth, and hence their motivation to engage with protective services.
If the young person continues to be at risk of abuse, it sends the message that, ultimately, they face this risk alone; it is up to them to prevent it. Again, this can only undermine their confidence in the work of safeguarding agencies.
Participation in keep safe programmes is likely to be re-traumatising for those who have experienced, or have an immediate fear of, sexual abuse.
Young people may sometimes be signposted to keep safe programmes on account of concerns about their supposedly ‘risky’ behaviour. Here again, it is essential that we challenge our assumptions and those of others:
‘Unfortunately, professionals often miss many of the signs and indicators that result from the sexual abuse of a child.
There are a number of reasons for this:
They may take the child’s behaviour at face value, forgetting to think about what may be causing it, or attributing it to other causes […] Because sexual abuse can be so hard to think about, it can be easier for professionals to attribute concerns to anything but sexual abuse.’[1]
Our own cultural assumptions, based on a young person’s age, ethnicity, sexual orientation and presumed values can make us less likely to see the possibility of the experience of abuse behind the young person’s actions and behaviours.
There is some really useful guidance in the CSA Centre Managing risk and trauma after online sexual offending (pages 25 – 26) for professionals in terms of principles of safety planning.
[1] Glinski, A (2018, updated 2023) Child sexual abuse: communicating with and supporting children. Practice Guidance. Community Care Inform [online via https://www.ccinform.co.uk/practice-guidance/childrens-disclosures-of-sexual-abuse/]
Practice Tip
If you are unsure about whether you should be completing ‘keep safe’ work directly with a young person, then please speak to your line manager.