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| Fiona Campbell, Andrew Booth, Anthea Sutton |
ScHARR have been involved in two systematic reviews of evidence that informed new NICE guidelines on harmful sexual behaviour in children and young people. Fiona Campbell, Anthea Sutton and Andrew Booth were part of a team - including Simon Hackett (Durham University) and Evgenia Stepanova (Barnardo's) - that undertook the review using quantitative and qualitative evidence to inform the development of the NICE guidance.
This is the first time NICE has published guidance to enable practitioners to help children and young people who display harmful sexual behaviour. For too long, this is an issue that has gone under the radar. ScHARR in collaboration with Durham university and Barnardo's undertook an appraisal of the evidence to inform the assessment and treatment of harmful sexual behaviour in children and young people.
Recommendations include a joined up approach between universal services, child health services, children's social services and the voluntary sector. Other recommendations include engaging with families and carers before beginning an intervention and tailoring it to meet the needs of the individual child or young person. The evidence reviews also highlighted gaps in existing research and recommendations were made for further research into the impact of electronic media on sexual behaviour.
NICE has published the guidance and also the systematic reviews and can be viewed below.