Preventing and responding to incidents of child-on-child sexual assault is a key part of safeguarding in the school environment. Emma Banister Dean offers a practical guide for schools and parents

Sexual assault by children on their peers has been in the news of late. The Department for Education (DfE) advice on sexual violence between children in schools and colleges (May 2018), has provided some guidance, but it lacks much needed practical information on preventing or responding to assaults in schools.

Around a third of sexual abuse of children is carried out by their peers. The chief executive of victim support charity Mosac has described the scale of the problem as “seismic”.

Responses to Freedom of Information requests from 38 of the 43 police forces in England and Wales have shown that there were 30,000 reports of sexual assaults committed by children over the past four years – 2,625 of which were carried out on school premises.

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