More training needed for social workers to report child sexual abuse, study says
Nina Jacobs
Thursday, May 21, 2020
Social workers need increased training to identify and report child sexual abuse (CSA) to help reduce the impact it causes on children and families, new research suggests.
A report, which presents the findings from an evaluation of a pilot programme delivered by the Centre of expertise on child sexual abuse (CSA Centre) says improving the social work response to CSA is essential to reduce the long term effects of sexual abuse on individuals and families.
Establishing an evidence-informed understanding of sexual abuse and offending among social workers, team managers and early help services will increase confident and competent responses to such cases, it states.
Such a move would also bring benefit to public services and society as a whole, the report adds.
Nearly 40 social workers from a range of teams in local authority children’s services were chosen to take part in the intensive training and development programme which ran between October 2018 and January 2020.
The monthly, day-long long sessions aimed to build social workers’ understanding and confidence in identifying and responding to cases of child sexual abuse, the CSA centre said.
The length of the programme allowed participants to focus on different aspects of CSA, providing opportunities to develop their learning, it added.
Areas covered included CSA in different contexts such as intra-familial or online-facilitated, working with children and young people who display harmful sexual behaviour and working with survivors.
Before the programme was rolled out, participants described individual challenges they had experienced in responding confidently to CSA concerns.
Furthermore, local authorities acknowledged difficulties they faced in maintaining a consistent response.
“These issues are likely to be common to other local authorities, which suggests that a programme helping social workers to identify and respond appropriately to cases of CSA will be relevant and useful to local authorities across the country,” the report concludes.
However, the findings from the programme’s evaluation showed its impact on participants’ knowledge, skills and confidence in identifying and responding to CSA concerns.
“This had enhanced their practice and enabled them to develop as specialists within their teams and wider organisations,” the CSA centre said.
It also found CSA practice leads were disseminating their learning by sharing resources and delivering presentations to wider teams.
“They were also starting to support colleagues to overcome the fear and uncertainty that surrounds concerns of CSA, and at times, were challenging them to ask direct questions and not let CSA concerns be put aside owing to lack of proof,” the CSA centre added.
The report outlines plans to test the programme in other settings such as police, education and health, to explore changes needed to its content, structure and delivery.
“Testing the programme in a multi-agency format would also be useful in assessing the benefits and challenges of bringing together practitioners from different sectors, and the wider impact this might have,” the report explains.
In light of the Covid-19 pandemic, it recommends the CSA Centre explore virtual channels to support and develop the expertise of social workers in identifying and responding to concerns of CSA.
These could include running the programme as a series of online training modules or offering a telephone and email support service for practitioners needing guidance around specific aspects of CSA, it adds.
