The London Safeguarding Children Partnership procedures for sexual abuse can be accessed here: https://www.londonsafeguardingchildrenprocedures.co.uk/sexual_abuse.html 

CSA Centre website links:

• Signs and indicators template: https://www.csacentre.org.uk/research-resources/practice-resources/signs-and-indicators/ 

• Communicating with children guide: https://www.csacentre.org.uk/research-resources/practice-resources/communicating-with-children/ 

• Supporting parents and carers guide: https://www.csacentre.org.uk/research-resources/practice-resources/supporting-parents-and-carers/ 

• Sibling sexual abuse and behaviour guide: https://www.csacentre.org.uk/research-resources/practice-resources/sibling-sexual-abuse/  

• Child Sexual Abuse response pathway: https://csapathway.uk/index.html#/ 

• Impacts of sexual abuse: https://www.csacentre.org.uk/research-resources/key-messages/impacts-of-child-sexual-abuse/ 

• Free e-learning: https://www.csacentre.org.uk/training-events/elearning/ 

• Directory of local services: https://www.csacentre.org.uk/find-a-support-service/ 

• Support for practitioners: https://www.csacentre.org.uk/research-resources/practice-resources/using-supervision-and-team-meetings/ 

  • Supervision and team meetings guidance: https://www.csacentre.org.uk/app/uploads/2024/10/Using-supervision-and-team-meetings-English.pdf 

Girls' Talk

These resources have been produced by the South London CSA Services as part of a series of resources, and is part of NHS England’s ‘Enhancing sexual abuse pathway for CYP in South London’. The South London CSA Services resources are available for all professionals working in the field of CSA within and outside of London.

The books are designed to help children (under 8 and 8-12 years old) and their families develop a shared understanding of what might happen after a child has been sexually abused. 

It is hoped that they will provide a focal point for families to begin safe and honest conversations about what is happening for the family, and the thoughts and feelings that they are experiencing. With an accompanying guide designed to support caregivers taking the first steps in understanding what their child might be feeling and what they need from them.

Click on the images below to see each resource.

Breck’s Last Game, is a short film about 14-year-old Breck Bednar who was murdered by a man he met on a gaming site. It highlights how boys can be victims of online grooming. The film was made to raise awareness of online grooming and carries an important message – do you really know who your online friends are?

Trigger Warning - grooming, coercive behaviour + violence. This film would be rated 15 if shown in cinemas.

1. Actively seek and share information

Identify and seek information from the key professionals and people in the family’s life. Always think about what information you need to share to make sure the child and family get the support they need. Always prioritise sharing information about safeguarding concerns. Data protection, confidentiality and consent can be important to consider but should not delay you in sharing information about safeguarding concerns.

Keep other professionals and agencies up to date about the support provided to the family, the outcomes you are expecting and what will happen next. When sharing information with others it is best to have as much detail to hand as possible.

Be actively curious and seek clarity from other agencies about any information they share which suggests a change in a family’s circumstances that could pose new risks. Be persistent in getting the right information at the right time from other agencies to make sure that cases don’t drift.

2.  Make sure you are clear when seeking or sharing information

Seek clarification if you don’t understand what someone else has shared with you.

Where possible, seek out and share information about the wishes, feelings and opinions of the child involved and any important information about a child’s characteristics. This might include information about their culture, socio-economic background and if they are d/Deaf or have a disability. This allows all professionals working with the child to have a clearer understanding of the child’s lived experience.

Terminology that may be familiar to you in your role may not be used or understood by everyone. Use language that is free of jargon and avoid acronyms so that the information you are sharing is accessible to different agencies.

3. Keep effective and good quality records

Records need to be clear, detailed and accurate, using analysis and evaluation to draw together the child’s lived experience. Even adult-facing work records should include, where possible, the wishes, feelings and opinions of the child involved and their understanding of what is happening in their life.

Record your intentions and actions in a chronology. Where possible, encourage other professionals working with a family to do the same. This allows you to keep up to date with agency involvement with a family.

If you share advice or concerns verbally, follow the conversation up in writing. This creates a written record and allows you to discuss or clarify information if needed.

Make sure any meeting minutes and records you create have clear action points and can be easily read and understood by others.

4. Understanding processes and pathways

Processes and pathways can be useful tools to aid in information sharing and multi-agency working. Make sure you are familiar with local processes and pathways for information sharing and multi-agency working. This should include understanding your local resolution and escalation policy to make sure concerns are responded to effectively and that risk is managed. This can be used if agencies or professionals working together are struggling to co-operate or are experiencing disagreements.

Managers and leaders should put in place clear channels for communication and an information sharing policy with a data sharing agreement. This should include processes for sharing information when cases transfer between local authorities. Seek guidance and training where needed on information sharing, confidentiality, data protection and consent, so that you can confidently support and challenge if people are reluctant to share information.

5. Make good use of meetings

Meetings are an important way of sharing, understanding and agreeing actions to address safeguarding and child protection concerns.

Aim to share concerns and priorities with the Lead Professional (England, Scotland), Designated Professional Lead (Northern Ireland) or Lead Practitioner (Wales) before meetings take place, so that they can facilitate discussions during meetings. Where appropriate, make the child and family aware of the information that will be shared.

Encourage the participation of all professionals who can provide an insight into a child’s life in meetings, including those from health or education. Consider using virtual or hybrid meetings to help enable this as they may be easier to fit in around busy schedules.

You should also share the minutes of meetings and conferences in a timely manner with all safeguarding partners, whether they attended the meeting in person or not.

6. Build strong multi-agency relationships

Develop relationships with colleagues and other agencies that aid seamless and continuous communication, build trust and help collaboration. Having an ‘open door’ approach to communication can help encourage this, as can responding to requests for information or feedback in a timely manner.

Take the time to be curious about and understand the roles, responsibilities, skills and expertise of professionals from other agencies. This can help inform how you work and share information with each other to provide the best support to a child.

7. Focus on your common goals

Multi-agency working can feel disjointed when there isn’t a common purpose. Align your priorities by taking a child-centred approach.

Try to co-ordinate joint visits with other agencies, such as health, education or adult services. This allows you to work together to achieve desired outcomes, share perspectives and make decisions quickly in the interests of the child.

Leaders could invest in a ‘champion’, named link person or key individual. This ‘champion’ is separate from a Lead Professional (England, Scotland), Designated Professional Lead (Northern Ireland) or Lead Practitioner (Wales), and is someone whose role is to bring together the different agencies involved with a family and make everyone aware of who to contact for more information.

8. Involve the right people at the right times

Multi-agency working is key in making decisions that are fully informed and best help the child. Use the knowledge of the wider safeguarding partnership to inform your decisions, especially at critical transfer points such as during assessments and before case closures

Give just as much consideration to the concerns and knowledge of third sector organisations and information shared by extended family and members of the public as those of statutory organisations.

Take advantage of any positive relationships that already exist between professionals, children, parents and carers when working with families to encourage change.

Be aware of what services are available to support children and their families and the referral processes for these services so that you can confidently signpost to them

The Hampshire Safeguarding Children Partnership (HSCP) offers a dedicated Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) Toolkit, which includes guidance, best practices, and practical tools to help identify, respond to, and support children affected by sexual abuse. The toolkit features risk indicators, disclosure guidance, referral pathways, and training materials, making it a useful reference for frontline practitioners, social workers, teachers, and healthcare professionals. 

• https://www.hampshirescp.org.uk/professionals/toolkits/child-sexual-abuse/

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SWGfL has developed a guidance document  to help schools and other organisations write effective referrals to their local Children’s Social Services, to request help and intervention in relation to harmful sexual behaviour being displayed by a child or young person. 

• https://swgfl.org.uk/assets/documents/harmful-sexual-behaviour-how-to-write-referrals.pdf 

Professional guides: Understanding and Responding to AI-Generated Child Sexual Abuse Material

The IWF and CEOP Education (National Crime Agency) have issued updated guidance to help schools respond to AI-generated child sexual abuse material (AI‑CSAM). Here's what's changed and what schools must do now:

What's new:

• AI-generated images (e.g. face-swaps, nudification) are now clearly defined as illegal pseudo-images

• Recognises growing risks from adult offenders using AI for sextortion

• Emphasises that intent doesn't matter—even "fake" images are criminal

What schools should do:

• Treat AI-generated CSAM the same as traditional CSAM

• Don't delete – preserve devices and evidence

• Inform the DSL immediately – escalate via safeguarding pathways

• Report to police (call 101 or 999 if immediate danger) as the primary pathway, with additional reports to CEOP or IWF as appropriate

• Use Childline's Report Remove for pupil-led takedowns

• Update policies and training to include AI-related harms

• Educate pupils on legal risks of creating or sharing AI-generated content

This guidance ensures schools are prepared to respond to modern digital threats with the same urgency and legal clarity as traditional safeguarding concerns.

Read the guidance here: iwf.org.uk/media/ceel0u4z/ai-guidance-england-final.pdf

Find the Report Remove tool here: www.childline.org.uk/remove