Delivered by: Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse

Target audience: Safeguarding Partners

This workshop is the final part of our six-session series of online workshops to support safeguarding partners to reflect, plan and lead the implementation the recommendations for Safeguarding Partners in England set out in the 2024 National review into child sexual abuse within the family environment.

The workshop is focused on Recommendation six, for safeguarding partnerships ensure that there are local pathways for referring children for appropriate forensic medical and other health assessments and that professionals understand what these pathways are. It will also discuss why it is important for health representatives with expertise assessments where recent or non-recent child sexual abuse is suspected to join strategy decisions.

This workshop will discuss the findings from the report that led to this recommendation specifically ensuing that safeguarding partners understand the important role health representatives have in strategy discussions and ensure all their staff know about and understand local pathways for forensic medical and other health assessments for children for recent and non-recent sexual abuse.  

This will include what forensic medical and other health assessments are, why they are important for children, and resources to support practitioners speak with children and families about what to expect. This session will also cover who an appropriate health representative is and their contribution to strategy discussions about children, where there are concerns about possible sexual abuse.