It is estimated that around 1 in 20 children in the UK have been sexually abused (NSPCC Child Sexual Abuse: Statistics briefing February 2024) the vast majority by someone they knew, and that girls are more likely to experience sexual abuse than boys.
However, sexual abuse is usually hidden from view, it is estimated that only 1 in 8 of these children will come to the attention of police and children’s services.
With that said, children report that they often believe they are communicating the distress of abuse through their behaviour but are not always noticed. A key theme of this guidance and toolkit is that professionals should focus on the signs and indicators of child sexual abuse, not disclosure relying on a child verbally telling them that they have been harmed, as the start of the safeguarding pathway.
Working with children where there are concerns of intra-familial child sexual abuse is particularly complex. There may be times where:
there is no evidence to support professionals’ hypotheses or what is more commonly referred to as “gut instinct”, that sexual abuse is occurring
there may be behaviours alerting professionals that all is not well in a child’s world
a child may tell someone that they have been abused, and subsequently say that it did not happen.
These practice challenges will be addressed through this toolkit and supported by the PSCP workforce training offer to consider how we can support children and manage risk effectively when sexual abuse is either confirmed or suspected.
This has been developed by understanding children’s lived experiences and learning across the service, including from our local child safeguarding practice reviews (LCSPRs).
In short, there are far more children being sexually abused than are currently being identified and safeguarded, a fact confirmed by the findings of the Joint Targeted Area Inspection (JTAI) on multi -agency responses to sexual abuse in the family environment (Ofsted, 2019). and further evidenced by Protecting children from harm, a report of the Children’s Commissioner, which found that 70% of adult survivors had never reported their abuse to the police. Feelings of shame, misplaced guilt and a fear of not being believed all work against the reporting of abuse.
All work in relation to child sexual abuse should underpinned by a trauma-informed approach.