The Burden of Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in England: Effects on Educational Attainment

“Child sexual exploitation and abuse is not only a policing issue — it is a public health issue that can shape many aspects of a child’s life. ECHILD helps us understand how these experiences intersect with education, and where wider systems can respond better.”
— Dr Inga Vermeulen, Research Fellow

This study is being led by Inga Vermeulen (Global Child Safety Institute, University of Edinburgh) and was funded by the Human Dignity Foundation. The study started in 2025 and aims to finish in 2027.

‍This project was reviewed and approved through ECHILD's data access process. Learn how ECHILD data is kept safe.‍

  • We want to investigate the relationship between child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA) and educational outcomes.

  • CSEA is widely recognised to be a public health concern, but evidence on the educational implications is limited. Using administrative data, we can fill in this gap by observing recorded experiences of CSEA and victims’/survivors’ educational outcomes over time.

  • Using ECHILD data covering social care, health and education, we can investigate the association between CSEA and later educational outcomes such as absences and attainment.

Find out more

  • Why does this matter?

    Child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA) is a public health concern that can have a range of short- and longer-term negative effects on the life of victims/survivors.

    What do we want to find out?

    How does CSEA affect educational outcomes measured through absences and attainment at the end of mandatory education?

    What we will do

    Using ECHILD data covering social care, health and education information, we analyse the number and profile of CSEA victims/survivors captured in the data, and assess the association between these recorded experiences of CSEA and later educational outcomes.

  • Background and aims

    Child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA) has been widely recognised as a public health concern that can have a range of short- and long-term negative effects on victims/survivors, thus impacting future career prospects and lifetime earnings. However, research on educational implications of CSEA is limited. Survey data that captures CSEA as well as education in sufficient detail and over time is lacking and the potential of administrative data as an alternative has hardly been harnessed. This study fills this gap by using administrative data for England covering social care, health and education to investigate the association between CSEA and educational outcomes at the end of mandatory schooling including absences and exam results.

    Methods and analysis

    The study uses multiple systems estimation as well as linear and logistic regression modelling to analyse the number and profile of CSEA victims/survivors captured in the data, estimate the number of ‘hidden’ cases that are missing from the data, and assess the association between captured experiences of CSEA and later educational outcomes.

    ECHILD data used

    • HES: Admitted Patient Care and Outpatients (2006-2019)

    • NPD: Spring Census, Autumn Census, Summer Census, Children in Need Census, Absences, Exclusions and Key Stage 4 (2006/07-2018/19)