Our partnership with Life Without Barriers (LWB) aimed to assess whether the LWB ‘Harmful Sexual Behaviour’ training package (whole of organisation online and targeted in-person) increased the knowledge and confidence of residential care staff in understanding, identifying and responding to harmful sexual behaviour of children and young people. The evaluation sough to 1) Determine whether a whole of organisation training package (online training) increased the knowledge and confidence of residential care staff in harmful sexual behaviour and 2) Whether bespoke in-person training, offered to a select group of residential care workers, improved their knowledge and confidence in responding to harmful sexual behaviour of children and young people. The evaluation contributes to the emerging evidence regarding the effectiveness of training for YSO residential care staff in the area of Harmful Sexual Behaviours.

Impact

Given the paucity of training evaluations in relation to harmful sexual behaviour, this evaluation helps to build an evidence base for the inclusion of staff training in sexual violence prevention efforts in high-risk settings (i.e., residential out of home care). Life Without Barriers, and the National Centre for Action on Child Sexual Abuse, is now able to apply these learnings to develop and improve Harmful Sexual Behaviour training, helping to build staffs knowledge and competence in managing these for at risk children.