1. Harmful Sexual Behaviour
Sarah Wright – Head of Service,
Safeguarding, Corporate Parenting and Learning
Lisa Aldridge – Service Manager
Safeguarding Reviewing Service

2. Why the additional focus on Harmful Sexual Behaviour?
Harmful Sexual Behaviour (HSB) within peer to peer child sexual exploitation
Review of serious incidents of youth violence – Jan/Feb 2015
Number of allegations of HSB NFA’ed
Need for targeted interventions outside of the criminal justice system

3. Defining Harmful Sexual Behaviour
An overview of the behaviour being discussed
A continuum of children and young people’s sexual behaviours (Hackett, 2010)

4. Firmin’s Contextual Circles of Safeguarding
Did the behaviour occur in public spaces?
Has the young person been exposed to street-based crime and violence?
Neighbourhood
School
Peer Group
Home
Child
Did the behaviour occur in school?
What is the impact of the incident on the school culture/environment?
How have the school responded?
Was the behaviour displayed by a group?
Is the young person socially isolated?
Do the young person’s peers support or challenge their behaviour?
Does the young person follow or lead peer behaviours?
Has the young person been exposed to street-based crime and violence?
Are there current or historic issues in the home or family environment that are informing the young person’s behaviour i.e. exposure to DV?
Do the parents/carers have the capacity to control/safeguard their young person? If not what is undermining this capacity?

5. Key principles
HSB is primarily a safeguarding concern – an enforcement response is sometimes but not always necessary
HSB cannot be understood in isolation - choices, attitudes and behaviours displayed by young people are informed by a range of social systems
Intervention plans should address both behaviours/attitudes and contextual factors
Professionals have a role to play in establishing the social conditions in which young people can engage in safe and healthy relationships
Msunderstood: A Framework for developing MAP/Strategy meetings for young people
who display harmful sexual behaviours

6. The journey so far MsUnderstood Programme – 6 North London boroughs
CYPS internal working group
HSB multi-agency workshop, May 2015
HSB MAP meetings
Multi-agency working group
Data/mapping – knowing the cohort
Strategy and Action Plan

7. CSE risk resulting from peer-on-peer abuse
Knowing our profile
Sexual offences/exploitation against one or more victim, usually in a group context
Offending at the home address of one member of the group - often properties where parents struggle to maintain appropriate boundaries
Pre/post offence influences and pressure exerted in other environments (at school or via social media)
Filming of the offence to ‘name and shame’
Of the Hackney children and young people currently known to be at risk of CSE around 50% have experienced CSE through peer abuse
CSE risk resulting from peer-on-peer abuse

8. Individual young people presenting with Harmful Sexual Behaviour
Knowing our profile
Sexual offences, usually against one victim by a single person
Some suggestion that the relationship between victim and perpetrator is established through a school setting
Social media utilised in a grooming approach, rather than to ‘name and shame’
In a number of cases young people presenting with Harmful Sexual Behaviour in this profile have a history of sexual abuse (as a victim) at a younger age
Individual young people presenting with Harmful Sexual Behaviour

9. Additional emerging themes
Knowing our profile
Females referred through the HSB MAP process - suggestive of a female ‘grooming’ role, usually undertaken by individuals who have been victims themselves
Gang links were evidenced in approximately 20% of cases at the point that HSB was first identified as a risk
Exposure to domestic violence in early childhood
Harmful Sexual Behaviour is normalised in some peer groups
Additional emerging themes

10. Prevention and Early Intervention
Group and individual work, some group work with specific cohorts - Young Hackney/ Empower/ Safer London
Sexual health and PHSE programmes address Harmful Sexual Behaviour
Multi-agency training on Harmful Sexual Behaviour
Targeted youth work

11. Strong Leadership Multi-agency working group
CHSCB CSE and Missing Working Group/ Safer Young Hackney
Leads identified in each agency
Leadership at every level

12. Protection, support, disruption and prosecution
HSB MAP meetings:
22 HSB MAP meetings held
21 males and 1 female
Age: 11 – 17 (65% 15 – 17 years of age)
Two-thirds of HSB MAP meetings relate to group/ peer on peer HSB; one third relates to individuals displaying HSB
Young Hackney – individual one-to-one work
Safer London pilot – one-to-one work with young men
Police investigations and prosecutions where appropriate
Clinical interventions

13. Problem Sexual Behaviour Care Pathway
Risk Management Plan and Support
Clinical Assessment
Initial Consultation
Initial Risk Assessment and Plan (Multi-agency)
Ongoing Process of Management and Review
Clinical Interventions
Clinical / CAMHS Assessment
Leading to further Specialist Assessment as required:
- Brief screening for sexually harmful behaviour (ERASOR)
- AIM2 Assessment
- AIM2 Assessment Clinic (Psychiatry - led) *
- Sexual Behaviour Screening (CSBI) †
- Assessment of developmental needs e.g. Learning Disability/ Difficulties, Attention or Impulse difficulties, Autistic Spectrum Condition
- Assessment of specific emotional/behavioural and mental health difficulties
- Assessment of impact of sexual abuse
Summary and Action Plan
Review
Overarching goal to increase protective factors and decrease risk factors
- Ongoing consultation for low risk cases
- Formulation based (individually tailored) e.g. Family therapy, Trauma focussed therapy †, Cognitive Behavioural Approaches †
- Good Lives Model (GMAP) based on AIM2
- External referral e.g. MST-PSB (Brandon Centre)
- Further incidents incorporated into risk assessment and plan
- Review progress of Intervention
- Re-evaluate Risk and Action Plan

14. Challenges Criminal investigations delay interventions
Developing a wide range of interventions for work with young people
Multi-agency identification, consistency and response
Understanding effective interventions
Engaging young people and families
Challenging gender stereotypes, attitudes and behaviours

15. Next Steps
Addressing the needs of ‘vulnerable adolescents’ more broadly
Embedding a contextual approach to safeguarding across Hackney CYPS and the wider partnership
Further interrogation of HSB data and the strengthening of our understanding of the profile of HSB in Hackney
Multi-agency training on HSB to ensure professionals are able to recognise and respond to HSB with confidence
Strengthening sex and relationship understanding
Ensuring a range of interventions are available
Ensure professionals have a shared understanding of how to refer concerns about HSB.

16. Joint Targeted Area Inspection Hackney Pilot December 2015
Key Messages

17. Key Process Issues
Inspectors are focused on outcomes for children and less on process – the JTAI is a multi-agency inspection focused on the difference the local partnership is making to children’s lives
Communication between agency inspection leads is key – a huge amount of coordination is needed to ensure a smooth inspection process
The Joint Targeted Area Inspections are based on the Ofsted model of working – some aspects not familiar to other agencies (e.g. KIT meetings)
The multi-agency audit process requires a huge amount of coordination and resource within very tight timescales
All agencies need to be flexible and responsive – tight and clear lines of communication

18. Focus on CSE/Missing
Understood the complexity of working with these issues
More interested in outcomes and impact than process
Interested to observe the ways that practitioners worked together
Interested in how well agencies understood the local profile and responded to this
Interested in the ways in which young people have been included in initiatives