Children and young people’s clinic (including paediatric sexual assault referral centre)

What we do

We provide specialist care and clinics to support the needs of children and young people with a range of genital conditions, forensic assessments and female genital mutilation (FGM) assessments.

We see children and young people where there are concerns about sexual abuse. If a child or young person has been sexually abused or sexually assaulted, either recently or in the past, it is essential they receive the care and support they need as quickly as possible. During their time with us, our focus is on putting their needs first.

Paediatric sexual assault referral centre (SARC)

Based in the children and young people’s clinic at the Great North Children’s Hospital, this service is available 24/7 to care for children and young people up to the age of 16 years (and sometimes beyond) who have experienced sexual assault or sexual abuse within the preceding 7 days.

Children are referred by the police or children’s social care, or by other health professionals.

The experienced team has provided this service for several years and their work includes:

• careful forensic examinations which provide vital DNA
• collection of physical forensic evidence to support the police and Crown Prosecution Service in successful prosecution
• ongoing support to children who have experienced sexual abuse, through counselling and help with other medical and physical needs.

We have a comfortable and friendly, family-focused environment.

The staff provide sensitive, holistic assessment and support following sexual abuse or sexual assault, including appropriate examination and care. This includes emergency contraception, investigation and treatment of sexually transmitted infections and post HIV exposure treatment.

The team can arrange onward referrals are made for appropriate counselling and will ensure that the child/young person and parents or carers are supported throughout their time at the clinic.  Follow-up care is provided, including telephone and clinic appointments.

The service is by appointment only – please call to discuss before attending.

Where are we based?

Our clinic is based at the Great North Children’s Hospital at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne.

How can we help?

Referrals to the centre

Children and young people need to be referred to the centre by the police or social services. When an assault is reported to the police they will gather information about the case, arrange an appointment with us and may bring the child/young person to and from the clinic.

Referrals can also be made by another service (such as sexual health clinicians and other health care professionals).

Children or young people and their families may wish to watch this video prior to their clinic visit, to find out more about what to expect when they attend.

The team

The department is led by a clinical lead and a lead forensic nurse specialist. Our experienced team includes consultant paediatricians with specialist training in managing genital conditions, child protection and forensic practice.

They are supported by children’s nurse specialists, who also deliver sexual health clinics. Other team members include forensic administrative staff, a healthcare assistant and a quality assurance lead.   

The service is led by the Paediatric Forensic Network (PFN).

Key contacts

Professionals contact

All referrals from police and professionals should be made by telephone to 0191 282 4753.

You will need to provide the following details:

• Patient demographics
• Information regarding the incident including time/ date and nature of incident
• Consent details for the child/parental responsibility and who will be attending with the child
• Any other additional factors which may need considered such as interpreter services, any physical and/ or learning disabilities or difficulties.

Please use the referral pathway for the paediatric SARC provided here to guide the use of our service.

Quality assurance

We are dedicated to providing a first-class service and continuous improvement of the service we provide.

There is a robust quality management system in place to underpin this and to ensure the highest possible standards of performance are achieved. Our systems are tested by regular internal audit programmes, assessment by external accreditation organisations and quality peer proficiency review.

Written policies and standard operating procedures guide practice, and these are subject to regular review by competent and qualified practitioners to ensure consistency of approach and validity of process. Tests performed are subjected to validation and verification process to ensure that they continue to meet the expectations of our service users. Corrective and preventative actions are formulated where we fail to meet requirements of any aspect of our service.

From October 2025, all sexual assault referral centres are required to meet the ISO 15189 quality standard, which sets the specific forensic requirements of dedicated services to provide high quality healthcare alongside forensic medical examination. The United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) will assess compliance against this standard.

The service is working towards accreditation assessment through the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) to ISO 15189:2022 standards. Once accredited, our scope of accreditation will be published in this section.

The document below outlines how we work with our partners.

This is a controlled document, please do not store locally.

Feedback

We are committed to providing a high-quality service and feedback is extremely important to let us know what we are doing right and understand more about what we need to improve.

If you have used our service and want to share your experience with us, please complete this survey.

If you are a professional colleague who has had experience of our service and would like to feedback, you can do so through this survey.

Complaints

If you are unhappy about the service you have received from us you have the right to make a complaint, have it investigated and receive a response. It is important that we can address this and learn from the experience.

An official complaint can be made verbally, in writing or electronically. 

If you wish to make a verbal complaint, please telephone the patient relations department on 0191 223 1382 or 0191 223 1454.

If you wish to complain in writing, you can write to:

Chief executive
The Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Royal Victoria Infirmary
Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE1 4LP

To make a complaint via email, please write to [email protected]

A complaint can also be made via email to the quality and assurance lead using the email address – [email protected].

When making a complaint it would be very helpful if you could provide us with as much information as possible in order for us to carry out a complete investigation.

Impartiality

We fully understand the importance of ethical conduct and impartiality in undertaking our work. We therefore ensure that, in all dealings, all members of the team are and will remain impartial.

Frequently asked questions

Helpful resources