ISPCAN's Collaborative Response Framework for Child Sexual Abuse

Managing child sexual abuse cases well with good outcomes for children can be done anywhere with your existing resources.  Learn how with this step-by-step framework that helps you build a team, generate a plan and a process.  This living document also has a resource guide for specialty care for each profession who is part of your team and other useful tools. 

ISPCAN Resources

ISPCAN brought together a global steering committee representing multiple organizations, disciplines and regions of the world to visualize the response and nature of child sexual exploitation and abuse in low resource environments. Using data and research to inform practice, we aim to drive long-term coordinated action to help victims and safeguard children. In every community, with existing resources, how can we do better? 

The steering committee for this project analyzed responses from a global survey, conducted a literature review and received IRB approval from Tel Aviv University to conduct international focus groups. We are proud to present the Collaborative Response Framework for child sexual abuse that can be adapted to any community’s needs, highlighting the currents strengths in response and providing support on creating a stronger multidiscipline response where needed.

The Resource Guide is a living document to capture and link to effective approaches for addressing tools and resources for each sector. From basic to advanced training, this guide will continue to grow with innovative work used globally in prevention, treatment, research, policy and collaboration.

Now more than ever it is critical that we collaborate more effectively, to deliver child-centered outcomes for children and families, and to reduce secondary vicarious trauma for our front-line professionals. We also hope this framework will spotlight the role of the front-line responders like law enforcement, health and community leaders to maximize what we have to do right now. Children are our most precious resource, and it is our duty to protect child rights. We hope you will accept the challenge to be a leader for your community by driving an organized and collaborative response to child abuse. 

Supporting Framework Downloads and Resources:

Select Resources Are For ISPCAN Members Only.

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Additional Resources
Resource Guide
Project Concept Note
Creating a collaborative response to CSA in low and middle income countries

Sexual violence spares no culture, country, race, religion, or ethnicity with many survivors never disclosing their abuse

Fewer than 10 percent of girls and 7 percent of boys who experienced sexual violence received care services

8 percent of men and 20 percent of women have been sexually abused before the age of 18

Collaborative Response Framework

Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a worldwide threat to children’s health. Without support, children who experience sexual abuse can have physical, mental, and behavioral problems. All children have the right to life without sexual abuse. When children have experienced sexual abuse, however, they have the right to get the best possible support.

The community’s response to a CSA case is complex because many trained people (professionals) from different fields are needed to properly support the child. This means that multi-disciplinary support teams must be set up to make sure that trained people in the community can respond to the children’s needs. These support teams can then work together to maximize resources, reduce burnout, and better support the victims.

Collaborative Response Outcome Goals:

  • Provide complete care to fulfil the child and family’s needs.
  • Help support teams to share information with each other, which can help the investigation, and help them to choose the best way to meet the needs of the child and their family.
  • Help members of support teams to each have clear, specific roles and jobs so that they can offer help to victims and their families quickly.
  • Help to keep the child and family from experiencing more trauma.
  • Support non-offending caregivers who play an important role in the child’s recovery.
  • Raise public awareness and understanding of child sexual abuse.
  • Help to prevent child sexual abuse.
  • Help to deal with harmful taboos and stigmatizing beliefs.
  • Inform policies and laws to improve systems of care.
  • Involve communities to take part in the mission of keeping all children safe.
  • Lessen stress and frustration among professionals and support teams.

Child Centered Responses:

This framework is designed with child-centered responses which are in the best interest of the child for several reasons:

  • Keeps the feelings and needs of the child as the focus of support.
  • Lowers the possibility of further trauma after the abuse has been reported.
  • Helps prevent the child from becoming a child who has experienced sexual violence again in the future.
  • Empowers the child to have some control of their recovery.
  • Builds trust and helps the child to share their worries and experiences.
  • Respects interactions between family, and how culture influences these interactions.
  • Helps the child to begin healing.

It is important to stress that a combined response in your community is not one-size-fits-all. Combined responses are unique to each community because it depends on local resources, existing laws, support from professionals and government leaders, and the support from the ordinary people of the community.

Although it may take time and patience, any community can begin the process wherever they are by focusing on their specific strengths and
resources.

The Twelve-step framework for building an action plan for your community

This framework is intended to help support teams and caregivers, regardless of their circumstances or training, to begin forming their own collaborative plan of action. Everyone can build on the resources that they already have in their community to help children who have experienced sexual abuse. Links to resources in the Resource Guide are included and can be used to help create a response plan that supports the strengths of any community and assist them to give children who have experienced sexual abuse the best support. Every step may not apply but think about them and decide what to build into your community’s collaborative plan using the existing resources available.

Framework Downloads

Best use of this framework

Building a multi-layered response to child sexual abuse in any community can be done with the resources that currently exist within that community. Having a plan of action can enable a support team to work together to help children in the best ways possible. This twelve-step plan can be fitted to your community by choosing the elements that work for your situation. Work with what you have, and you can help children, no matter the cultural or legal challenges.

Choose the parts that work for you and leave out the parts that are not possible. Identify important partners, bring them together to build the plan, and start small. Create a team that is moving together with one goal in mind – that being to help CSA victims and protect the children of your community. Once you have a solid base, you may want to build on it to include other areas of child abuse such as child trafficking and other forms of physical abuse. Data has proven that bringing together people from different fields of expertise does work and most importantly, can help a child heal from the devastating effects of sexual abuse.

Step 1: Review 12 steps of the Collaborative Framework identifying your unique strengths

Step 2: Customize your Fillable Framework Template for your specific needs

Step 3: Access our Resource Guide for support materials for each step of the framework

Step 1: Know the existing child protection and other relevant laws

The laws can help identify potential resources and funding opportunities, as well as clarify who is
mandated to act. Knowing this basic information at a high level is important even if the appropriate
action is not currently happening well. It will be important to leverage this when the time is right to
make sustainable change.

Know the laws and service procedures in your country and how you can still protect the child even if
the criminal case doesn’t go forward or a defendant is found legally not liable. The success of one
may not depend on the success of the other.

Who are the people in your community to whom a child, caregiver, or mandated reporter can speak to about child sexual abuse?

Potential members of a multi-disciplinary support team:

  • Social workers
  • Child welfare agency workers
  • Healthcare professionals (doctor, nurse, emergency medical staff)
  • Mental health providers (counsellors, psychologists, therapists)
  • Educators and school administrators
  • Staff of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) supporting children, women and/or families
  • Religious or spiritual leaders
  • Police or law enforcement staff
  • Ombudsman for children
  • Government officials (ministry official, public health officials)
  • Lawyers
  • Judges from child court or family court
  • Staff of shelters/homes for abused children
  • Child helpline representatives
  • Child protection committees and groups
  • Other individuals or community leaders

Reach out to those you identified in Step 2 to discuss the benefits of collaboration.

  • Reach out to those you identified in Step 2 to discuss the benefits of collaboration.
  • Obtain a commitment from each person to participate on the CSA team.
  • Organize a meeting with team members to confirm that all agree to work as a collaborative
    team to maximize efficiency and resources, improve responses, and optimally care for
    sexually abused children and non-offending family members. 
  • Set up a skills and knowledge exchange program/plan highlighting skill set gaps.
  • Ask team members if there are others who should be invited to join the team. Who are the people to also consider?
  • ONCE PEOPLE COMMIT TO BEING PART OF THE CORE TEAM, list each person’s resources and strengths and define the roles and responsibilities of each team member.
  • Based on the information above, decide together which team member will be best suited and responsible for coordinating the collaborative response. Depending on
    your community’s needs you may also consider a second person to assist or fill in when the coordinator will not be available. 
  • Build consensus as to how each responder/sector will best support the collaborative response to allow flexibility while avoiding duplication of effort.
  • Agree that each team member’s role will be given equal weight and respect by all. Commit to prioritize the best interest of the abused child.
  • Identify any on-going training needs. Re-visit training priorities at the start of each year. Identify team members responsible for facilitating crucial trainings – and how to secure funding for attendance.
  • Develop clear goals and objectives of the team. For example, by bringing this team together what are you hoping to achieve for the child outcomes? 
  • Develop strategies for safe ways to store and share information among members of the support team on a ‘need-to-know’ basis. Make sure these strategies help to keep child-and-family case information private, especially when working with non-team members of the community, as expected from related policies and laws.

The child’s best interest must always be the focus of support.

  • The child’s best interest must always be the focus of support. 
  • Make sure that all written and verbal communication with the child and caregiver is in their preferred language, using age-appropriate language that they can understand. Use professional interpreters when needed, avoiding use of family members/companions as interpreters whenever possible.
  • Use child-centered strategies for building trust and communicating with children on their level of development.
  • Let the child know that you believe them – this can change everything!
  • Explain why relevant assessment/interviews/examinations must be done and ask the child for permission. If a child does not give permission, unless it is an emergency, DO NOT force examinations, treatments, interviews, etc., even if a parent has given their permission.
  • Work with the child, listen to their concerns, and consider options that serve the child yet satisfy investigation needs (e.g., delay physical exam or interview until the child is rested, as long as the evidence will still be available).
  • Support the child throughout the process: this can include calling the child by their own name, thanking them for working with you (and others), and acknowledging their efforts and difficulties.
  • Team members should encourage an optimistic view of children to overcome abuse related difficulties with adult support and effective services.
  • Minimize the number of times a child must share their experiences during the initial questioning and investigation. Record the interview if possible and allowed, to ensure that the story is not re-told. If recording, make sure that proper security procedures are in place to limit the potential for copying and distributing the interview. 
  • Avoid leading or suggestive questions when speaking with the child and non-offending caregiver. Open-ended, non-leading questions are crucial to obtaining accurate information.
  • Ensure maximum confidentiality and inform child/non-offending caregiver of any limits of confidentiality. This includes protecting data and passwords so nothing is accessible to anyone outside of the team.
  • Be aware of and responsive to the cultural beliefs, practices, and norms of the child and family. These may impact a child’s disclosure, a caregiver’s response, and local community reactions to the CSA.

Identify child-friendly places where children and/or their non-offending caregivers can feel comfortable to report CSA and/or seek help after abuse has been reported.

  1. The location should maintain the child and caregiver’s privacy and confidentiality.
  2. It is important to choose a space that is shame free.
  3. Make sure that a representative from that space is a member of your multidisciplinary support team.
  4. The space should have child-friendly furniture, toys, etc.
  5. In choosing space, consider its accessibility to the child.

Some possible locations:

  • Hospitals or health clinics
  • Schools
  • Community centers
  • Children’s centers (if one exists in the community)
  • Help line/welfare or other organizations
  • Places of worship
  • Other places specifically developed or identified by your team to be a safe space to respond to abused children
  • Law enforcement agency or police department (with child-friendly rooms)
  • Court rooms (specifically made to be child–friendly)

*Determine if it is safe to create child-friendly signs at the specific location to make CSA victims comfortable and let the community know this is a safe place to report or go to for help.

Bring the support team members together to create a written response plan for child sexual abuse in your community. Consider using the Framework Fillable Template provided. Get creative in thinking of ways to use the combined resources in your community to best support children who have been sexually abused.

Consider including the following points in your plan based on your team’s expertise:

a) REPORTING CSA IN YOUR COMMUNITY:

  • Once you know of a CSA case in your community it is important to urgently report and ensure access to essential service for the child, health, police, & psychosocial support
    at the earliest possible time.
  • Identify how and to whom the abuse must be reported. Is there a specific reporting hotline that should be called?
  • How should the investigation be carried out? Describe how the team will handle a case and when referral to all of the services will occur. 
  • If there is not mandatory reporting in your area, consider if reporting will cause negative consequences or other problems. If so, form a response plan on how to best respond to these potential negative results or problems.
  • Once reported, who needs to be alerted right away, which team member will contact them, and how will each team member respond to the family? How should team members work together to respond to the report and caregivers?
  • Identify a few people within the team who are trained, or who are willing to be trained, to speak to and/or interview the child.
  • Document everything carefully whenever possible.
  • Comply with local legal requirements for reporting, information sharing, etc.
  • Is it safe for the child to stay in the home? If not, where should the child go? Should the child be placed with other family members, out of home care, etc.? If so, how will the child get there?
  • Who checks on the child’s well-being after they are moved and for what reasons?

b) LOCAL TEAM COMMUNICATION:

  • How and when should other members of your team be notified of the abuse?
  • What should happen when each member has been notified?
  • Find safe and secure ways of communicating when sharing sensitive information to protect the child’s identity and identify ways of communicating that should be followed due to safety risks to the child who has experienced abuse and caregivers.

c) LAW ENFORCEMENT/ LEGAL RESPONSE:

  • Define what ‘justice’ would look like in the best interest of the child, the caregiver, and your community.
  • If not yet involved, should law enforcement be contacted? Under what circumstances?
  • Are there legal resources available for the child and/or family?

d) MEDICAL RESPONSE:

  • Are there medical doctors, nurses, clinics, and hospitals in your local community that can respond to the child who has been abused? If not, where is the closest hospital or clinic?
  • Under what circumstances should a child be referred for medical care? If possible, think of a medical care plan for a child, built on the help available in your community. Create plans and processes that should be followed when a child who has been sexually abused must be sent to different places for testing and care. Remember some treatments and tests are time-sensitive – this means they must be carried out before a certain amount of time has passed. These include treatments for STDs and HIV, which may need to be done before anything else in the response plan.

e) MENTAL HEALTH RESPONSE (See APENDIX for best practice & resources):

  • Can team members access training and/or education on the psychosocial impact of child sexual abuse?
  • Do team members have strategies for responding to observations that the child may be suffering severe Posttraumatic, depression and/or suicidal ideation for which immediate
    crisis intervention may be needed?
  • Identify team members, social workers, counselors, religious leaders and/or other trained lay persons who may provide support, counseling and/or psychosocial assistance to the child and family during and/or after an abuse investigation.
  • Are there psychologists, social workers, or counsellors in your community who can meet with the child and family at a cost they can afford, or is outside funding needed? If so,
    how, and when will the child and family be able to see the mental health worker? Children in low-resourced regions have successfully benefited from culturally adapted evidence-
    based mental health treatment modalities. 

f) CHILD WELFARE RESPONSE — IDENTIFYING COMMUNITY RESOURCES TO BUILD RESILIENCE:

  • Can the child still stay in school? Are there ways to encourage this?
  • Are there other outlets in the community to support the child’s resilience and help them to recover quicker, like sports, arts/crafts, sewing, cooking, etc.?
  • What does the non-offending caregiver believe will help the child to recover? How can these things be added to the child’s recovery plan?
  • Identify people in the child’s life who have given the child love and strength and make them part of the “care plan.’’ If possible, invite the child and caregiver to help identify these people.
  • Are there internet resources, like articles or books, that can help the child, family, or team?
  • Are there other community resources that can be used to help the child, and how do they fit into the recovery process? Add this to the child’s plan.
  • Is there a possibility that the offender can reach other children in the home or the community? If so, draw up safety plans for those children to prevent more children becoming victims.
  • Keep in contact with the child and/or their family to offer ongoing support and check in on their wellbeing.

Hold regular meetings to talk about the condition of the child and family, and how other team members may be able to further help in the child’s recovery and attempts to seek justice. All meetings must respect the investigation processes and court procedures.

  • Hold regular meetings to talk about the condition of the child and family, and how other team members may be able to further help in the child’s recovery and attempts to seek
    justice. All meetings must respect the investigation processes and court procedures.
  • Regularly check the changing needs of the child and family; keep track of and fine-tune responses as needed for the current and long-term support plan.
  • Bring in more support partners, or make referrals as needed in each specific case.

The plan can include:

  • A list of contact persons from the local support team – updated yearly.
  • A list of helpful community resources.
  • A flowchart to show each step of the response and case management process, as well as names of people who will be responsible for each step.
  • The process for organizing ongoing training sessions for the team.
  • Print and hand out the final plan to all team members.

Create chances for team members to examine the details and processes of successful and difficult cases. Encourage team members to speak out if they need help in particular cases or with carrying out specific parts of the process.

  • Create chances for team members to examine the details and processes of successful and difficult cases. Encourage team members to speak out if they need help in particular
    cases or with carrying out specific parts of the process.
  • Document case outcomes if possible to routinely assess progress and identify strengths and areas needing improvement.
  • Monitor and evaluate use of, and commitment to, the CSA Response Plan.

Keep track of the child’s medical health and mental health appointments and follow up on the child’s progress to see if the child needs extra help.

  • Keep track of the child’s medical health and mental health appointments and follow up on the child’s progress to see if the child needs extra help.
  • Check on the safety and well-being of the child and family regularly.
  • Teach the family how best to support the child and help the child to recover and support resiliency.
  • Help the family and child to understand myths about victim-blaming, or taboos about speaking out against CSA.
  • Teach the child and the family how to cope with the stress and trauma in a way that will aid the child’s recovery, healing, and resiliency.

Have regular team meetings to hear from everyone what is working, and what should be changed or updated

  • Have regular team meetings to hear from everyone what is working, and what should be changed or updated.
  • Revise and date the updated plan to make sure that the revisions will be applied in the future. Add any new people or organizations to the plan as new members join the support team.
  • Update contact information for any new team members.
  • Gain the support of more participants as needed to strengthen your team’s combined response.
  • Once you have a plan that is running well, can you collect data without any personal details to help educate the community or children? Is there data from the CSA cases that you can use – without making any personal information or sensitive details known – to help educate the community and their children?
  • Are there new ideas the team has for preventing CSA in the community?
  • Can you work with schools or the government to improve policies or laws that can help protect children?

Define what success means to you and your team – celebrate your successes!

  • Define what success means to you and your team – celebrate your successes!
  • Offer initial and ongoing training opportunities for both trained workers and other supportive responders in your community. 
  • Identify or create new training opportunities based on recognized needs or knowledge gaps.
  • Offer training and resources to help members of the support team take care of themselves, process any secondary trauma, or stress, and reach out to other team members for help.
  • Hold debriefing sessions with some or all team members when a specific case has been very stressful.
  • Encourage the support team to explore and share new resources.
  • Create regular team meetings in which you can learn something relevant or new or in your respective fields together – these joint meetings are important to strengthen trust and your ability to work together.
  • Consider if changes to policy or laws would help your group be more successful, and if so, how those changes might be achieved.

User Agreement

Please note that ISPCAN Collaborative Framework Tool is designed for people responding to child sexual abuse to use with the understanding that they agree to:

  • Use the tools in a culturally appropriate way that is also sensitive to the needs and well-being of children.
  • Refer to the fillable form and Resource Guide as needed to supplement the development of their collaborative response to child sexual abuse.
  • Share any suggestions for improvement with ISPCAN and any new translations done.
  • Abide by all ISPCAN Child Safeguarding and Code of Conduct Policies when using the Framework
Collaborative Framework User Agreement

“If not us, then who? If not now, then when?”

― John Lewis,
Civil Rights Activist USA

Contact us with any questions regarding the Framework or suggestions to add to the Resource Guide or if you are interested helping us collect data on the Collaborative Framework implementation and success.

Contact us or submit a resource for our Resource Guide

Watch our webinar recording on adapting the framework for any community for an overview of the tool.

The need for collaboration is essential for better child outcomes and less burn out of child protection professionals.

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