RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS- Child sexual abuse and exploitation: recording practices in children’s social care and serious incident reporting
Research report about child sexual abuse and exploitation recording practices and serious incident reporting, including qualitative insights across 6 local authorities.
The Department for Education has published a research report examining how child sexual abuse and exploitation (CSAE) is recorded, alongside current approaches to serious incident reporting.
In June 2025, Safeguarding Network highlighted Baroness Casey’s audit into what is often described as ‘grooming gangs’, the National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse.
This audit forms part of a long-standing body of work exploring child sexual exploitation, dating back to the government’s first formal definition in 2009. Across successive reviews and strategies, consistent themes have emerged: challenges in effective information sharing, the need for ongoing training, improving understanding of risk factors affecting children, and strengthening the quality and consistency of data relating to perpetrators.
A continuing area of concern is the disparity between police-recorded CSAE and what is reflected within children’s social care datasets, particularly the Children in Need (CIN) census and Serious Incident Notifications (SINs). In response, the Department for Education commissioned a qualitative study to better understand how CSAE is identified, assessed, recorded, and reported within children’s social care practice.
Key findings
Encouragingly, the evidence suggests that under-recording is more likely to be influenced by systemic factors rather than shortcomings in frontline practice.
Practitioners reported greater confidence in identifying and recording CSAE when supported by reflective supervision, access to targeted training, and the use of evidence-informed tools from credible sources.
Existing data systems do not align well with the realities of safeguarding practice, where harm is rarely isolated to single incidents and more often presents as part of complex, overlapping, and evolving patterns of risk.
In practice, much of the response to CSAE relies on locally developed systems, which are often comprehensive but lack consistent national frameworks. Where guidance does exist, there is limited clarity around its application in day-to-day practice.
Read the report here