Victim Support has commissioned the International Centre to support the development of an improved in-house response to adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse who may be referred to their service following experiences of crime. This has involved a review of the evidence on risk and resilience among adults who have experienced child sexual abuse, which has been used to underpin the development of the response.

Victim Support have involved survivors of CSA as consultants who have taken part in a series of meetings throughout the process to help shape the design of the service. The findings from these activities will form the basis of practice guidance and training to be cascaded to all Victim Support staff.

The research team will also conduct a small evaluation of the process of co-producing a service response in this way. This will involve talking to consultants, Victim Support staff and partner agencies about their experiences of contributing to the design of a service response.

The project commenced in August 2015 and will conclude in March 2016 with a launch of the new practice guidance and findings from the evaluation at a Victim Support-hosted conference.