National Children's BureauDez Holmes, Director of Research in Practice and Research in Practice for Adults, looks at the challenges facing professionals working with children displaying Harmful Sexual Behaviour.
This week, we have published a report with the National Children’s Bureau, which examines the needs of the children’s workforce in relation to working with children and young people who are displaying Harmful Sexual Behaviour (HSB). This research was undertaken by the Local Authority Research Consortium (LARC), now in its seventh round.
Over 500 multi-agency professionals and a number of foster carers, across six local authority areas, responded to a survey, and undertook their own local research. The national survey sought to understand how professionals describe their knowledge, skills and confidence in relation to supporting children and young people displaying HSB, what works well in developing capabilities, and what further support they feel is needed.
<<< The final report is available to download here >>>
For the purposes of this research, Harmful Sexual Behaviour (HSB) was defined as “Sexual behaviours expressed by children and young people under the age of 18 years old that are developmentally inappropriate, may be harmful towards self or others and/or be abusive towards another child, young person or adult.” (Hackett, Holmes and Branigan, 2016). HSB, therefore, is an umbrella term that spans a range of behaviours.
The results, as is so often the case, were mixed. Whilst two-thirds of staff said that they felt confident in identifying children and young people displaying inappropriate or abusive sexual behaviours, it appears that direct work is more difficult, with only 36% agreeing they felt confident in this. = The emotional impact of this work was also found to be significant; 40% reported that either working with or the prospect of working with young people displaying harmful sexual behaviour made them feel ‘worried’ and 36% agreed it made them feel anxious – even where they had considerable experience in this area.
It’s no surprise that the survey showed this to be a challenging area of work, not least because professionals report that children and young people displaying HSB often have other vulnerabilities and needs that make the work particularly complex. Children and young people may have experienced/be experiencing abuse themselves, or have additional needs relating to learning and communication. We know of course that correlation does not imply causation. A child who has experienced abuse will not necessarily go on to develop harmful behaviours, and a child who is displaying HSB has not necessarily experienced abuse or neglect. However, it is useful to be aware of the range of factors that may be at play in a child or young person’s life, in order to work to support them in the most effective way.
Just over half of the respondents said that they felt there had been an increase in cases of HSB since 2014. Again, we know that perception is not necessarily reality. We need to be careful not to jump too quickly to conclusions about the prevalence – rising or otherwise – of harmful sexual behaviours. At Research in Practice we have been involved in this strand of work over the last few years (including our work with NSPCC in 2016 to develop the Harmful Sexual Behaviour framework) and have seen a growing awareness of HSB as well as a drive across the sector to do more to identify and respond. It may be therefore, that an increase in cases reflects a better understanding of and/or response to HSB.
Importantly, and in keeping with the LARC ethos, the research explored solutions as well as the challenges. High-quality supervision was identified as key to practitioners’ ability to work safely, as was access to structured support from peers and the ability to discuss cases with senior colleagues. It appears there could also be the potential to strengthen practitioner skills and resilience by harnessing the expertise of local specialist services (where these exist) to deliver training and provide advice for colleagues, in addition to the direct work they undertake with children and young people. This kind of support could prove to be immensely valuable for non-specialist staff working in universal services, and could go some way to improving early support for children and young people.
About the author
Dez Holmes is Director of Research in Practice and Research in Practice for Adults.
Related resources
Harmful Sexual Behaviour framework
Children and young people with harmful sexual behaviours: Research Review (2014)
Children and young people with harmful sexual behaviours: Executive Summary (2014)
