Since October 2015, four European universities of applied sciences and three youth care organisations in Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands and Scotland, have been working as partners to develop education and training for (future) professionals. The goal of this partnership is to help (future) professionals: 1. To support healthy sexual development of young people in care; 2. To interact with young people, their (foster) parents, colleagues, and other professionals, concerning the topics of sexual behaviour, intimacy, and inter-personal relationships, in order to prevent sexual abuse of young people in care. This report shows the steps taken to develop a set of core competencies that form the basis of the education and training for (future) professionals. The study described in this report resulted in a list of 61 competency items (knowledge, skills and attitudes) that (future) professionals need in order to support healthy sexual development of young people in care. The most relevant items were grouped into the following clusters: 1. Discussing sexuality, 2. Supporting the needs of young people concerning sexuality, 3. Act professionally in relation to the topic of sexuality, 4. Dealing with different norms, values and cultures with regard to sexuality, 5. Recognizing and responding to offensive sexual behaviour, including sexual abuse.
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Over the last two decades, there has been increasing political attention on sexual abuse in care. Research has not only shown that sexual abuse in care occurs but also that abuse can be perpetrated by other children and young people in care, children of foster carers, as well as by foster carers and residential staff members. One of the main risk factors turns out to be the absence of relationship and sexuality education in care. This chapter describes the work in a three-year project where partners in four European countries developed products to educate (future) professionals to address sex and sexuality with young people in care, assist young people’s healthy sexual development, and safeguard children and young people from abuse. Grounded in the holistic approach of the WHO’s Standards for Sexuality in Europe, and based on literature review and interviews, five core competencies were developed and operationalized in a reflection instrument. Based on this, an open access (online) course for teams in care and open access materials for social work education were developed and can be found at https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780429342912/ac296fd5-0ba8-4c3d-97c0-792bf07178b6/content/www.amsterdamuas.com/safe">www.amsterdamuas.com/safe.
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Over the last decade, many (European) countries have created special committees or conducted special investigations into the occurrence of sexual abuse in residential and/or foster care. Many of these studies concluded that children and young people in care are at a greater risk of being sexually abused, compared to youth growing up at home. However, the extent and scope of sexual abuse which has historically occurred in residential and/or foster care remains contested and is highly controversial. Although a broad range of factors are involved, one issue that is of crucial importance in the prevention of sexual abuse is paying attention to the healthy sexual development of children and young people in care. This sounds easy, but it isn’t easy at all. Ideas about relationships, intimacy and healthy sexual development differ between people and countries. It’s a sensitive subject that many professionals working in care find difficult to talk about. As most professionals working in care in Europe graduate from schools of Social Work, social work education should prepare (future) professionals to address this issue. Although some authors have addressed this issue, in general, social work education does not pay sufficient attention to the subject. This project aims to help (future) professionals build competencies on this specific subject by providing the following products:1. An international summer school on the subject of sex and sexuality, for social work students.2. An online course on the subject of sex and sexuality for professionals working in residential care or working with foster parents.3. A website with materials for European lecturers who teach future social workers on the subject of sex and sexuality.4. A reflection instrument as a tool for on-the-job training on the subject.These products are based on a set of practice based core competencies that professionals should develop in order to be able to provide care and upbringing on the theme of sex and sexuality. Next to that five central themes were used to order the development of modules.
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