1.    Who the future fund is expected to be for

Funding is expected to be open to voluntary and community sector organisations working in England and Wales that can support victims and survivors of child sexual abuse, and/or those caring for or supporting them.

2.    Expected requirements

Organisations are likely to be expected to show that the activity they would deliver:

·  responds to an evidenced gap in support or provision;

·  contributes to improving the wider support landscape for victims and survivors;

·  is trauma-informed, safe and shaped by victim and survivor voice;

·  works effectively with local or national partners, including through referral pathways where appropriate; and

·  can be delivered within the funding period and comply with Home Office financial requirements.

Organisations are likely to be expected to demonstrate appropriate safeguarding, accessibility, partnership working, use of evidence and lived experience, proportionate outcome measurement, financial management, and a credible approach to delivery and sustainability. This engagement will help determine which expectations are necessary and proportionate.

Consideration is also likely to be given to the overall distribution of projects across geography, type of support and target cohort.

3.    Partnership approaches

The Home Office is likely to welcome partnership, consortium and/or match-funded approaches when the future fund is opened, where these strengthen delivery.

The Home Office is considering whether a future fund should contribute to the following broad outcomes:

·       More victims and survivors can access timely, appropriate and inclusive support.

·       Victims and survivors have a better experience of finding, accessing and navigating support.

·       Participants report improvements in wellbeing, safety, coping or other outcomes relevant to the support received.

·       Non-abusing parents, carers and family members are better able to support victims and survivors, where this forms part of the funded activity.

·       National or cross-regional gaps in provision are reduced.

·       Referral pathways, partnership working, safeguarding practice and wider system capability are strengthened.

·       Learning and evidence are generated and shared to improve future policy and commissioning.

Potential activity could include:

·       Targeted therapeutic, counselling or practical support for underserved groups, including disabled and LGBT+ victims and survivors.

·       Specialist support for non-abusing parents and carers and family members, where national provision is limited.

·       National helplines for adult victims and survivors, where there is an identified national gap.

·       Peer support to help reduce regional waiting lists where gaps are evidenced.

·       Projects strengthening regional support pathways through existing local partnerships.

·       Projects that provide wraparound support for victims and survivors with complex needs.

·       Projects sharing best practice and learning across the victim support and safeguarding landscape.

Please note, this list is illustrative, not exhaustive, and does not represent a final decision on scope. The questionnaire invites views on where national funding could add the greatest value and which activities should fall inside or outside any future fund.

Engagement deadline

By 5pm on 28 September 2026.

Any future funding competition would be advertised separately. The timing and details of any future competition have not yet been confirmed.

This is a pre-market engagement exercise, not an application for funding. To take part, complete the separate engagement questionnaire https://www.homeofficesurveys.homeoffice.gov.uk/s/SVSCSAFUND2027/ by 5pm on 28 September 2026.

If due to accessibility needs you require an offline version of the questionnaire to complete, please contact SVSCSAFUND2027@homeoffice.gov.uk

Organisations do not need to answer every question. Please focus on the questions where your organisation has relevant evidence or experience. Where possible, distinguish between published evidence, service data, evaluation findings, practitioner experience and feedback from victims and survivors.

The Home Office will process information provided in the Pre-Market Questionnaire for the purposes of market engagement, grant funding planning, and related governance activities. Any personal data included in responses will be handled in accordance with the UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018, and Home Office information management policies. Information will be accessible only to authorised personnel and retained in line with Home Office retention requirements. Participation in this exercise does not create any contractual relationship or guarantee involvement in any future grant funding activity.

The Home Office may publish an anonymised summary of themes arising from this engagement. Commercially sensitive information should be clearly marked. Please do not include personal data about victims, survivors or service users.

1. Background and evidence of need

The government is committed to doing everything in its power to prevent the horrors of child sexual abuse, providing the national and local leadership required to tackle offending, protect children from harm, and support victims and survivors. An update on the government’s work to tackle child sexual abuse including its response to the final recommendations of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) was set out in the Tackling Child Sexual Abuse: Progress Update Policy in April 2025.

Child sexual abuse is prevalent, frequently under-identified and can have profound and long-lasting consequences for victims and survivors, their families and wider support networks. The Centre of expertise on child sexual abuse (CSA Centre) estimates that at least 20% of girls and 10% of boys in England and Wales are sexually abused during childhood. It estimates that at least 500,000 children experience in-person contact child sexual abuse each year, while noting that this considerably understates the full scale because it excludes abuse in online contexts and in-person non-contact abuse.

The same review reports that 71% of men and 53% of women who experienced child sexual abuse had not told anyone about it at the time. Shame or humiliation, fear of not being believed, self-blame and not recognising that the abuse was wrong were common reasons for not telling. This underlines the importance of services that can respond to need at different points in a person’s life, including long after the abuse occurred.

Child sexual abuse can have a devastating and long-lasting impact on victims and survivors, their families and communities. The effects of child sexual abuse vary between individuals and can emerge or change over time. They can affect physical and mental health, relationships, education, employment, financial security and wider wellbeing. Child sexual abuse may also occur alongside other forms of abuse, neglect and adversity. The CSA Centre’s 2026 review found that only 31% of respondents who had been sexually abused in childhood said it was the only form of abuse or neglect they had experienced.

Victims and survivors are not a homogeneous group. Their experiences, barriers to disclosure and support needs may be shaped by age, sex, disability, neurodivergence, ethnicity, sexuality, communication needs, family circumstances, geography and the nature and context of abuse.

This means that support cannot be based on a single pathway or model. Some people may need immediate crisis support, while others seek help years after abuse. Needs may change over time, and victims and survivors may require different combinations of therapeutic, emotional, practical, advocacy, peer and family support at different stages.

2. Online Harms

The nature and context of child sexual abuse are changing. Technology including end-to-end encryption, online dating platforms, and social media platforms can enable offending behaviour including grooming, blackmail, proliferation of child sexual abuse images, livestreamed abuse and other forms of image-based harm. Artificial intelligence capabilities create further risks, including the generation or manipulation of sexual images of children. This has created new opportunities for offenders to target, blackmail and harm individuals.

Online abuse should not be treated as wholly separate from abuse occurring in person. Victims may experience both, and online contact may form part of a wider pattern of grooming, coercion or abuse. The continued possession or circulation of images can also extend the impact beyond the original abusive act.

These developments may affect who comes forward for support, the routes through which people are identified and what they need from services. A future fund may therefore need to ensure that services can recognise and respond to technology-enabled harm without creating artificial divisions between different forms of abuse. Through this engagement, the Home Office wants to understand how providers are adapting their practice, workforce and partnerships to meet these needs.

3. Current support landscape

Support is provided by a mix of statutory and voluntary and community sector organisations and is commissioned through different national, regional and local arrangements. Provision includes therapeutic, emotional and practical support; advocacy; helplines and chat services; peer support; support for non-abusing parents and carers; and help navigating safeguarding, health and criminal justice systems.

The CSA Centre’s Support Matters 2025 report identified 363 services providing specialist support to sexually abused children, their parents and/or adult victims and survivors in England and Wales. It estimated that around 16,500 victims and survivors for each local or regional service mapped. It found that 23 services had closed since its first study in 2023. The report also describes increasing demand, greater complexity of need, funding insecurity and high staff workloads.

This engagement seeks to build a fuller understanding of where national funding can add most value, rather than duplicate provision more appropriately commissioned locally. In particular, the Home Office wants to understand where there are national or cross-regional gaps; which groups are least well served; what forms of support are most difficult to sustain; and where investment could improve pathways, capability or learning across the wider support system.

Non-abusing parents, carers and family members may also require support to understand the effects of abuse, respond to the child or adult survivor and sustain their own wellbeing. The Home Office is therefore interested in understanding how support for families and carers can complement direct provision for victims and survivors.

4. What evidence suggests effective support requires

Evidence and learning from victims, survivors and specialist services indicate that effective support should be responsive to the individual rather than determined solely by the category of abuse experienced. The Home Office is interested in provision that is:

·       Trauma-informed: recognising the effects of abuse and avoiding practices that compound trauma.

·       Relational and consistent: enabling people to build trust and engage at a pace that is appropriate for them.

·       Holistic: responding, where appropriate, to practical, social, family, educational and wider wellbeing needs alongside therapeutic needs.

·       Accessible and adaptable: including for disabled and neurodivergent people and those with differing communication needs.

·       Inclusive: recognising that some groups may experience additional barriers to disclosure, identification or support.

·       Connected to the wider system: with effective safeguarding, referral and onward-support arrangements.

·       Informed by victims and survivors: ensuring that involvement is safe, meaningful and appropriately supported.