Published case reviews since 2018 highlight that harmful sexual behaviour (HSB) should be recognised as a potential indicator of abuse and that sometimes this can be challenging for professionals to recognise and respond to.
Professionals such as practitioners or those who work in foster care or education, should work together to look for the reasons behind a child's behaviour, provide them with tailored support and consider appropriate safeguarding responses.
The learning emphasises the importance of:
Published: December 2021
Our series of thematic briefings highlight the learning from case reviews conducted when a child dies, or is seriously harmed, as a result of abuse or neglect. Each briefing focuses on a different topic or learning for specific sectors, pulling together key risk factors and practice recommendations.
We work with local safeguarding partners to ensure that learning from case reviews can be accessed and shared at a local, regional and national level.
Find out how you can apply the lessons from case reviews and improve your practice to help protect children and young people.
Browse through our list of child safeguarding practice reviews, serious case reviews, significant case reviews and child practice reviews which were added to the National case review repository between 2019 and 2023.
Subscribe to our monthly email newsletter alerting you to the case reviews we have added to the National collection of case reviews repository at the NSPCC.
Access guidance, resources and training to help you respond to and prevent incidents of problematic sexual behaviour and harmful sexual behaviour, including child-on-child and peer-on-peer sexual abuse.
A blog discussing the importance of language when talking about harmful sexual behaviour.
Briefing on the data available about HSB, including scale of the issue, technology-assisted HSB and characteristics of young people who display HSB.
