The need to go "Upstream"

By "going upstream" - we mean preventing child sexual abuse before it happens. 

There are a number of things we can all do as adults that can help to reduce the risk of child sexual abuse.

These include:

 - Speaking to your child about safety – both online and offline.

 - Talking about consent, boundaries and healthy relationships with your child

 - Taking sensible precautions about who has access to your child and asking the right questions when considering environments such as after school clubs, football clubs, Scouts and Girl Guides etc.

 - Having a family safety plan if something has happened or you are concerned that something may happen in the near future’

 - Speaking to adults in your life about prevention

 - Challenging adult and adolescent behaviour that causes you concern.

This section provides some tools and resources that can help you with these tasks.

Protecting the next child

We believe that child sexual abuse is preventable, not inevitable. It is the job of adults to keep children safe by making the environments around them safer. We want to stop child abuse before it happens rather than reacting afterwards. 

We want you to protect the next child from child sexual abuse. As well as knowing the facts about the different types of child sexual abuse, and the different warning signs there are things you can do to make your home and community life safer.

Whether it is the questions to ask if you are leaving your child in the care of other people, or how to create an environment at home where you or your child can raise any concerns - we have the tools for you.