Research carried out by NCB and Research in Practice with the Local Authorities Research Consortium(LARC) shows the challenges that professionals face when responding to children who display Harmful Sexual Behaviour (HSB.) Staff report that it is difficult to balance the rights and needs of a child displaying HSB, with the duty to protect other children.
High quality reflective supervision is key to practitioners’ ability to work safely, but access to this is patchy. Professionals also identify support form peers as key to improving their confidence in working with children displaying HSB.
This report sets out the results of the LARC survey of over 500 professionals working across a range of agencies in six participating local authority areas. It also discusses the implications of the findings, and suggests four priority areas for improvement and how these might be taken forward by local agencies.