In Child Review Abuse this week, HSMC's Dr Sophie King-Hill discusses her realistic evaluation of a sexual behaviours assessment tool and training implemented across a southern locality. This is important as the number of reported harmful sexual behaviours in children and young people is rising.

The key practitioner messages found were that practitioner confidence was enhanced through training in the area of sexual behaviours in children and young people and can impact positively on risk assessments, but only when all agencies have been trained. Using assessment tools can run the risk of washing away the context into which the behaviour is situated, making assessment one dimensional. Subjectivity may also become an issue when behaviours are not specified within the context into which they are situated.

King‐Hill, S. (2021) Assessing Sexual Behaviours in Children and Young People: A Realistic Evaluation of the Brook Traffic Light Tool. Child Abuse Rev., https://doi.org/10.1002/car.2664