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All the signs are that child sex abusers carry on abusing into adulthood. A project by Hackney Council, the NSPCC and NCH Action For Children offers solutions for those trying to break this circle of abuse. Mike George reports

Between one in three and one in five child sex abusers is under 18 years old, and it is widely believed that a large proportion of young abusers go on to abuse children in later life.

While this emotive and difficult issue has received increasing recognition in recent years, most local authorities face problems in organising effective assessment and treatment of young abusers.

One solution is now on offer from the London-based Young Abusers Project, which is run jointly by the NSPCC, NCH Action For Children, and the Tavistock Clinic Foundation. The project, which started in 1992, offers assessment, consultation, treatment and training services, and has worked with over a hundred boys, and a few girls, over the past few years. It is now offering local authorities the opportunity of seconding staff for training in the project.

Sue Higginson, area manager of children's services for the NSPCC's London region, who has taken a leading part in the project, believes their work is well enough developed to offer a core programme which each local authority can mould to fit its own circumstances.

The London Borough of Hackney is the first council to take this up and later this year it will be seconding a member of staff to the Young Abusers Project, who will then be expected to help the council's social workers develop their skills and to organise more effective multi-agency systems.

'That person will then be a focal point for the development of a community-based service, probably run by a relatively small team who will be expected to dedicate some of their time to working with young sex abusers, and to develop the service further,' explains Michael Crowley, acting principal psychiatric social worker for Hackney's child and family consultation service. 'It's important we keep our thinking flexible about how best to organise and run a service.'

Staff seconded to the project will be given training for one year - largely through practice work - and will have supervisory support and advice on the casework they are dealing with for their own local authority.

One aim of the project is to exchange experience with social services departments and other agencies. 'While we felt that we needed to get the project's expertise out into the local authorities, we want to see each borough develop its own way of working on the problem so we can all build up experience, and eventually get some generally accepted practice standards,' Higginson says.

The Young Abusers Project employs psychiatric staff, psychologists, social workers and others experienced in court procedures, and seconded staff will be encouraged to recognise the value of networking and close supervision. 'We feel strongly about this, it's better for a worker not to work on their own if at all possible,' Higginson says.

Both she and Colin Hawkes, a consultant worker for the project, stress social workers often need to have more information about the way young abusers operate, they need extremely effective communication skills, and need to be able to name the abuse confidently. It is considered crucial to name the behaviour, which, says Higginson, is not the same as labelling the child or young person. Social workers also need to be able to discuss sexual matters within these difficult and contradictory situations.

The age at which young abusers are referred to the project by social services, the courts and other agencies, has been going down, with the main age group declining from 15 to 12 years old.

There are also more girls being referred than before. Partly for this reason, and also because nearly all have suffered severe trauma, although only about a quarter have been sexually abused, the assessment and subsequent individual and group treatment acknowledges serious developmental questions.

'We've found it's important to intervene at an early stage, especially before adolescence', says Hawkes.

Assessment at the earliest opportunity also allows workers to acknowledge the possibility of distinguishing between sexual experimentation and sexual abuse - even among pre-adolescents - which allows them to identify behaviour which is worrying and requires urgent intervention.

'Trying to identify sexual abuse and sexually aggressive behaviour among children, particularly when they are as young as eight, is unnerving for professionals, so having reliable criteria is extremely important,' Hawkes adds.

The treatment programme usually lasts for a year, focussing on behavioural modification techniques and on an understanding of the traumatic events in the abuser's life which led to the abusive behaviour. It aims to develop skills and abilities to help children and young people avoid, anticipate, and deal differently with potentially abusive situations. Hawkes characterises it as a cognitive behavioural model.

Although the number of reported cases of young sex abusers in Hackney is thought to be relatively small, the social services department's report to council members maintained that 'many instances remain "hidden" and are subject to neither assessment not treatment, primarily because social workers have either not been in a position to recognise the escalating nature of the abusive behaviour among young people or because they believe no appropriate services are available'

How the project works

· At referral the children and young people have a full psychiatric and psychological assessment. They may receive individual treatment and group treatment; all those referred are likely to take part in group work. n At the same time the project team takes steps to ensure the child victims are safe.

· Where appropriate, and possible, there is also family treatment. n Seconded social workers are given formal teaching, but also learn on the job by being part of the team and being involved in individual and group work, first through observation, then by participating themselves.