Kjersti Draugedalen, Lesley Anne Ey, Simmon Hackett
Improving Educational Responses to HSB (Norway, Australia, UK)
Workshop Abstract
Schools are increasingly recognised as key settings for preventing, identifying, and responding to children’s harmful sexual behaviour (HSB).
Educators face complex challenges when both the children who harm and those harmed are pupils, requiring responses that are proportionate, trauma-informed and developmentally appropriate. This workshop brings together research and innovation from Norway, Australia, and the UK to explore how educational systems can strengthen their prevention and early-intervention responses to HSB.
Drawing on a Norwegian public-sector innovation project (2024–2028), Kjersti Draugedalen examines the design of an interdisciplinary Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) training prototype co-created with schools and young people to enhance professional confidence and cross-sector cooperation.
From Australia, Lesley Ey presents findings from a survey of 71 Catholic education staff exploring teachers’ knowledge, attitudes and responses to HSB, highlighting the need for teacher training, clear policy frameworks and supportive school cultures that move beyond punitive responses.
From the UK, Simon Hackett discusses findings from a randomised controlled trial on teaching sexual consent and the law within statutory RSE (Hackett, Butterby & Donovan, 2025), examining how pupils interpret legal and relational messages and the implications for building safe, inclusive and developmentally sequenced consent education.
Together, these perspectives identify shared themes across contexts: the need for systemic, whole-school approaches, interdisciplinary collaboration, and teacher capacity-building to respond effectively to HSB. Participants will workshop how these insights can inform policy, training, and school practice in their own settings, contributing to more coherent, child-centred and preventive educational responses to HSB.
About the Speakers
Kjersti Draugedalen is a senior advisor at the Family House in Tønsberg municipality. In 2023, she defended her public PhD entitled “Teachers as Human Rights Defenders: Transforming Teachers’ Safeguarding Role against Harmful Sexual Behaviour”.
Kjersti is one of the co-authors of the Norwegian school manual on HSB and has written a practical book about HSB and school responses with Helle Kleive. Currently, Kjersti is leading the innovation project “Improving safeguarding of children and young people through a more systemic cooperation in the prevention and responses to harmful sexual behaviour in school” funded by the Norwegian Research Council (2024-2028).
Associate Professor Lesley-Anne Ey is a national leader in the field of harmful sexual behaviour ineducation settings. She is highly regarded as anapplied education researcher specialising in providing real-world solutions to prevent and respond to HSB.
Her research has illuminated the importance of education in primary and secondary prevention and has brought education to the table in this field. She has been instrumental in supporting both national and international education departments/organisations in developing policy, procedure, teacher training and education relative to child sexual abuse and harmful sexual behaviour.
Simon Hackett is Professor of Child Abuse and Neglect in the Centre for Research into Violence and Abuse at Durham University, UK. With over three decades of experience in the field, Simon has conducted extensive research and authored a wide range of publications on harmful sexual behaviors in childhood.
He is the primary author of the NSPCC’s operational framework for responding to children exhibiting harmful sexual behaviors and a co-author of the widely used AIM3 assessment model. Reports on this subject include expert reviews for the UK’s Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse and a 2024 evidence review that has informed the Council of Europe’s Committee of Experts on Violence against Children.
Additionally, Simon contributed significantly to the 2016 UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Guidelines on Harmful Sexual Behaviour, representing the UK’s inaugural public health guidance on sexual abuse by children and young people. He is also widely known for his continuum model of sexual behaviour in childhood. Simon actively participates in various professional associations dedicated to preventing and responding to child sexual abuse.
He is incoming President of ATSA and past Chair of NOTA. In the UK, he is a member of the Advisory Board of the Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse.