This demonstration project aimed to implement quality standards, originally co-developed in one local authority through the ‘Co-designing Community Resilience to Online Child Sexual Victimisation’ research project, in West Yorkshire.
Online Child Sexual Victimisation (OCSV) is an escalating concern for police, partner agencies, families, and communities. Rapid technological advancements and evolving offender tactics have outpaced current prevention strategies, leaving children increasingly exposed to harm. Despite efforts, online interventions have not curbed the spread of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), and urgent, locally grounded action is needed to prevent its creation and impact.
As part of its problem-oriented research, the ESRC Vulnerability & Policing Futures Research Centre delivered a project on Co-designing Community Resilience to Online Child Sexual Victimisation. The project brought together professionals, community members, and children in Blackpool to collaboratively develop a Quality Standards framework aimed at strengthening multi-agency responses to OCSV. The framework reflects lived experiences and frontline insights from practitioners, ensuring it is both practical and community-informed.
To assess whether these Standards could be effectively applied in different contexts, the Centre funded a demonstration project in West Yorkshire, which brought together Dr Sarah Carlick, an independent safeguarding consultant and the West Yorkshire Violence Reduction Partnership. This project aimed to test the framework’s transferability, identify local needs, and explore how community resilience to OCSV can be strengthened across diverse settings.
The project aimed to test whether the Quality Standards framework developed in Blackpool could be adapted, implemented, and scaled in West Yorkshire and also to understand how these Standards could improve and support responses to OCSV.
The project team produced several resources, including a theory of change:
Event
Following a series of workshops, Dr Sarah Carlick, the West Yorkshire Violence Reduction Partnership, and the Vulnerability & Policing Futures Research Centre hosted an event in March 2025. The event brought together practitioners and researchers from across West Yorkshire to share their insights and understanding to support turning the proposed quality standards into practice.
- Dr Sarah Carlick (MeSafe)
- Sam Clewarth (West Yorkshire Reduction Partnership)
- Professor Corinne May-Chahal (Centre Co-Investigator, Lancaster University)
