Last week, Foundations attended the Norfolk national Harmful Sexual Behaviour (HSB) Conference to hear about the latest advances in research and practice to prevent harm and support children, young people, and their families.
‘Harmful sexual behaviour’ is the term commonly used to refer to child-on-child sexual abuse, and is defined as behaviour which is developmentally inappropriate, may be harmful towards self or others, and/or be abusive towards another child, young person, or adult. Harmful sexual behaviour exists within a spectrum, ranging from behaviours considered inappropriate to those more violent and harmful, and it is one of the most complex and sensitive challenges in contemporary safeguarding and child-welfare practice.
We were very interested to learn about the development of innovative tools in this field.
Sophie King-Hill, member of Foundations’ HSB Advisory Group and Associate Professor at the University of Birmingham, presented a new tool that she has developed called the Young Person’s Sexual Behaviour Mapping Tool (YSB-MT). Designed to be used with young people aged 13–18 years and freely available to a range of professionals, the tool is rooted in a socio-ecological model which looks at a young person in a holistic way – taking into account family, school and the wider community. It takes a participatory approach, where the young person’s voice is valued and they co-create the support needed. The tool also highlights the importance of reflective practice by the professional and includes some key questions to aid reflection.
Other tools presented at the conference includes the Bubbles to Protect training, developed by Steve Appleby from the Gweres Kernow service in Cornwall, which teaches children about personal space, safety, touching, and consent; and the Keep Safe programme, created by specialists at Bristol CAMHS and focusing on children and young people with learning disabilities who have displayed harmful sexual behaviours.
The conference also underlined the need for more evidence in this space and that the existing evidence is mainly focused on risks, rather than the child’s or young person’s needs.
At Foundations, we have commissioned the University of Lancashire, University of Birmingham, and Durham University to carry out a systematic review of interventions that support children and young people displaying harmful sexual behaviours. As well as examining the quantitative evidence to answer “what works?”, the systematic review will also assess qualitative evidence and include the perspectives of those with lived experience, to collate a rich overview of the effectiveness and acceptability of current HSB support. Using the findings of this systematic review, we will develop a Practice Guide (commissioned by the Department for Education and produced by Foundations) which will translate the strongest available evidence on HSB into actionable recommendations to support local leaders in strengthening services for children, young people and families.
The systematic review and Practice Guide will be published in mid-2027. More information is available on our website.