ARSWGfL and The Marie Collins Foundation is pleased to announce the launch of a brand new support service that is there to support professionals working with children and young people around tackling harmful sexual behaviour incidents, funded by the Home Office and in collaboration with the Department for Education.
Harmful Sexual Behaviour Support Service
The Harmful Sexual Behaviour support service has been provided in response to the concern of harmful sexual behaviour within schools. As well as this, to support professionals with advice and guidance around handling these types of incidents.
Harmful Sexual Behaviour in Schools
Last year, Ofsted published a report around sexual abuse and safeguarding concerns on and offline in schools. This was in response to the ‘Everyone’s Invited’ campaign which saw young people being invited to come forward and report their own experiences with sexual harassment within schools.
Of the many findings that were brought forward in the Ofsted review, it was seen that ‘Nearly 90% of girls, and nearly 50% of boys, said being sent explicit pictures or videos of things they did not want to see happens a lot or sometimes to them or their peers.’ The problem was made even more concerning when it was apparent that children and young people were hesitant to report such issues over concerns about how parents and friends would react.
Harmful Sexual Behaviour Support Service
The Harmful Sexual Behaviour support service is there to support anyone in England who works with children and young people (in particular, professionals in a designated safeguarding position). If you work in a primary school, secondary school, college, early years setting or work within a wider safeguarding area (Police, social carers, health care professionals) then the service is available to you. If children within your care have been displaying or are affected by specific incidents of Harmful Sexual Behaviour, the support service can provide initial support and signpost to further resources and advice.
It is open from 8:00am to 8:00pm Monday to Friday. Those who need advice can either email on hsbsupport@swgfl.org.uk or phone 0344 2250623. Our practitioners are able to listen to your concerns. You can find out more here:
