Swindon LSCB - News
Children & Young People Who Exhibit Sexually Harmful Behaviour: AIM pilot
A new service called AIM for children & young people who exhibit sexually harmful behaviour has started in Swindon. AIM stands for the Assessment Intervention and Moving-on. AIM was originally set up in Manchester to improve the way professionals from a variety of organisations respond to children and young people who display sexually harmful behaviour. This way of working has now been developed in many areas of the UK.
The term sexually harmful behaviour refers to a situation where sexual contact is sought with another person, where the other person has not agreed to it happening or is unable to give that agreement.
A very successful training course was held in May this year for a multi-agency group of staff to learn how to undertake AIM assessments with young people age 10 and over. We now have 17 trained staff:
- 11 from Children and Families.
- 2 from CAMHS.
- 3 from the Yot
- 1 learning disabilities nurse from the PCT.
The trainer was Julie Henniker who originally set up the AIM Project in Manchester.
A pilot of the AIM assessment started on 1 June and will run until the end of November 2007. At this point the pilot will be evaluated and decisions made about a way forward. During the pilot, assessments will be carried out on children and young people age 10 and over:
- Where sexually harmful behaviour has been identified as a cause for concern;
- Where incidents of sexual offending have been reported to the police;
- Where young people have admitted sexual offending;
- Where young people have been convicted of sexual offending
Despite expectations that this new service would ‘open the flood gates’, to date there have only been only 4 referrals.
If you wish to make a referral, please contact the Referral Team on 466903.
If you require more Leaflets for Professionals to distribute to staff, please contact Di Miles by email on dmiles@swindon.gov.uk
The coordinator of the pilot is Julie Downey, Head of Safeguarding.
August 2007
Related Information Within This Website
Resources - Sexually Harmful Behaviour
Protocol 3 - Children and Young People Who Sexually Abuse Other Children
Printer Friendly Version
