‘Expect more harmful sexual behaviour cases’
More cases of harmful sexual behaviour in children and adolescents could be exposed locally, after a serious case review found many missed opportunities in the local care system to manage risks posed by one young person.
A review into the case of young adult ‘John’, was commissioned by the Islands’ Safeguarding Children Partnership after the case was brought to its attention.
It found there were missed chances to identify his potential harmful sexualised behaviour as an adolescent and that improved guidance was necessary.
Harmful sexualised behaviour is a form of sexual abuse, and pan-island independent chairwoman of the Safeguarding Partnership Boards, Sarah Elliott, has suggested that more cases could become uncovered as an effect of new guidance off the back of the review. Such reviews are rare in the islands.
‘We recognise that with the increase in online grooming and online abuse, harmful sexual behaviour will be impacted by that, so as we move forward with the extra training, tools and procedures that we’re putting in place, it will help frontline staff pick up those early signs of harmful sexual behaviour,’ she said.
‘We may well find that there are actually more cases that come to light, and we must expect that if we are raising awareness and skills to identify those needs.’
Ms Elliott said that curiosity about sex was usually ‘very normal development behaviour’. But should parents or teachers spot very advanced knowledge of sexual activity, that should ring alarm bells.
Such instances were missed in this case as John moved from childhood to adolescence.
Records of multi-agency interactions with John, who had been in contact with agencies since he was very young, indicated multiple occasions when he came to their attention for welfare-related issues or potentially harmful sexualised behaviour.
The harmful pathway he was on caused him to be at risk himself, as well as a risk to others, but
it went unidentified by Children & Family Community Services, the police and Children’s Convenor.
The investigation found that an earlier co-ordinated multi-agency approach, with a strong lead, would likely have provided opportunities for oversight and support in an attempt to direct John to a more positive pathway.
Within the review, agencies highlighted that service delivery must be child-centred, holistic and systemic – features which were not wholly present in this case.
Health & Social Care admitted many meetings were taking place, led by different agencies, with lots of ‘noise’ about John and the risks he posed.
Some risks were seemingly recognised, but it was expected that ‘someone else’ would be doing the work.
