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Harmful sexual behaviour: charity launches guidance for children's health professionals

3 mins read Education Health Social Care
The NSPCC has launched new guidance on harmful sexual behaviour (HSB) to help children's health professionals to identify risk.

The online guidance is targeted at sector workers including child and adolescent mental health teams, school mental health champions, school nurses, health visitors, youth offending and sexual health teams.
 
While the children's charity has been advising on how to tackle HSB in children for some time, the new resources - which include a step-by-step guide and downloadable tools - have been designed specifically with health professionals in mind.
 
Around a third of child sexual abuse is carried out by other children and young people and some research suggests the rate may be "much higher", according to the charity.
 
The launch comes in the same week as an interview with a child victim of sex assault which took place in a school classroom, was broadcast by BBC1's Inside Out East. A 15-year-old boy was convicted of sexually assaulting the girl - neither of whom can be named for legal reasons.
 
The NSPCC said the number of its Childline counselling sessions for victims of sexual abuse carried out by other children increased by a third between 2016/17 and 2017/18.
 
The guidance has been developed to help professionals "distinguish normal sexual behaviours from those that may be inappropriate, problematic or harmful and make sure children get the appropriate support", it added.
 
The resources are supported by the National Workforce Skills Development Unit and commissioned by Health Education England.
 
Pat Branigan, NSPCC development and impact manager, said: "Sadly, harmful sexual behaviour is not rare, making it really important that those who come into contact with children, young people and their carers are able to respond appropriately.
 
"Our research in this area highlighted that whilst health professionals can identify harmful sexual behaviour, they often do not know what to do next.
 
"We have developed these resources to help them distinguish normal sexual behaviours from those that may be inappropriate, problematic or harmful and make sure children get the appropriate support."
 
The NSPCC Harmful Sexual Behaviour Framework has also been updated to include the most recent evidence.

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