The Harmful Sexual Behaviour Support Service is continuing to highlight how professionals working with children and young people can get support in dealing with incidents of harmful sexual behaviour. As part of a new campaign across social media, we are showing what impact the service has had since launching in January and how professionals are using this new line of support to develop their own knowledge and understanding of what HSB is and how it can affect the young people in their care.
New Social Media Campaign
This new campaign will show what the support service can be used for as well as what kinds of advice may be beneficial towards a host of different professionals working with children and young people. The campaign will also highlight what kind of trends have been seen across the 500+ cases that have been received from professionals since launching, as well as key pieces of advice from our practitioners around responding to incidents involving HSB.
The campaign is tailored towards a large variety of professionals, including: youth workers, care home employees, support workers, health care professionals, education professionals, designated safeguarding leads and those who work within safeguarding networks.
Carmel Glassbrook (Support Service Lead) said:
Before the service was launched, we knew that the majority of professionals working with children were under-equipped to address this issue of harmful sexual behaviour and help the young people affected. The volume of cases we are now supporting professionals with demonstrate a significant need for the children’s workforce to be able to access advice and guidance on how to handle incidents of harmful sexual behaviour
If you are a professional working with children and young people in England and are concerned about an incident involving HSB, please get support today. Incidents could include:
- Sexual harassment and abuse
- Non-consensual touching of others
- Sharing self-generated sexual imagery without consent
- Using sexualised or aggressive language towards others
The service is also there to provide guidance on policy development as well as sharing relevant resources around how to respond to incidents.
To follow our new campaign, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. To get support please contact the HSB support service on 0344 2250623 or via email: hsbsupport@swgfl.org.uk.
