In 2015, the Home Secretary established an Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), of which the final report was published in 2022. It emphasised some devastating system failures and published a series of recommendations to improve the safeguarding of children, including improving data sharing across agencies, and reporting procedures and accountability. Moreover, the increase in online grooming has also brought new challenges to stakeholders looking to prevent and tackle child sexual abuse across the sector.

The Home Office’s 2021 Tackling Child Sexual Abuse Strategy, in tandem with the Online Harms Bill, looks to deliver improvements to national and local services and provide new guidance on preventing child sexual exploitation and supporting survivors of abuse. Through forming robust local partnerships across councils, police, healthcare, schools and the voluntary sector, practitioners can ensure children don’t fall through gaps in the system and receive the wrap-around care they deserve.

• An estimated 1 in 20 children in the UK have been sexually abused
• Over a third of all police-recorded sexual offences are against children
• Concerns around sexual abuse have been identified for over 2,800 children in the UK who are the subject of a child protection plan or on a child protection register
• 83,000 child sexual abuse offences were recorded by police in 2020, an increase of 267% since 2013, according to the Tackling Child Sexual Abuse Strategy.

Join us at this one day online event to hear the latest policy updates and strategies for preventing and tackling child sexual exploitation from leading experts across the sector. You will hear best practice case studies showcasing a range of key topics, including implementing multi-agency approaches to child safeguarding, combatting online grooming and early intervention measures to identify and support children at risk of sexual abuse. You will also have the opportunity to network with senior colleagues from across local services to share common challenges in improving prevention measures for children at risk of sexual exploitation.

Why attend:
• High-level keynotes from leading experts on the latest policy updates on combatting child sexual abuse
• Multi-agency case studies addressing a range of challenges, including providing joined up, wrap-around care for children
• Engage with key insights into tackling online child sexual exploitation
• Network with speakers and senior colleagues from across the child sexual exploitation sector
• CPD (gain 8 hours of CPD points towards your yearly quota).