Children and young people’s clinic (including Paediatric Sexual Assault Referral Centre)

What we do

The Children and Young People’s Clinic (CYPC) cares for children and young people with a range of genital conditions. We provide clinics specialising in genital conditions, forensic assessments and female genital mutilation (FGM) assessments.

We see children and young people with 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)

The Paediatric Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) is based in the Children and Young People’s Clinic at the Great North Children’s Hospital. It provides a 24/7 service for the assessment of 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.

For several years, the team at CYPC have provided a first-class service for child victims through:

• collection of forensic examinations which provide vital DNA
• collection of physical forensic evidence which supports the police and Crown Prosecution Service in successful prosecution of offenders
• ongoing support to child victims of sexual abuse through counselling and other medical and physical needs

The staff provide a holistic assessment and support for children and young people following sexual abuse or sexual assault undertaking a forensic examination and providing post-assault care. This includes emergency contraception, investigation and treatment of sexually transmitted infections and post HIV exposure treatment.

Onward referrals are made for counselling. The Paediatric Forensic Network (PFN) team ensures that the child/young person and their parents or carers are supported throughout their visit to the clinic.  Follow-up care is provided including telephone and clinic appointments.

The service is by appointment only; please call and arrange an appointment before attending the CYPC Paediatric SARC.

Where are we based?

Our clinic is based at the Great North Children’s Hospital at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne. We have a comfortable and friendly, family-focused environment.

How can we help?

Referrals to the centre

The PFN do not take self -referrals; children and young people need to be referred to the centre by the police or social care services. When an assault is reported to the police they will gather information about the case, arrange a SARC appointment and may bring the child/young person to and from the centre. Referrals to our SARC can be made by another service (such as sexual health clinicians and other health care professionals).

The following video may to understand a visit to the SARC; children and young people and their families may wish to watch this prior to their clinic visit to provide information about what to expect when they attend.

If you are from the police, or social services, or are a professional looking to make a referral, please visit the Professionals section below for further information.

The team

The department is led by a clinical lead and a lead forensic nurse specialist. Our experienced team include consultant paediatricians with specialist training in managing genital conditions, child protection and forensic practice. They are supported by forensic children’s nurse specialists, who also deliver sexual health clinics. Other valuable staff within the team include forensic administrative staff, a healthcare assistant and a quality assurance lead.   

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

Key contacts

Contact us

For more details about the clinic, or to make a referral, please call us on 0191 282 4753. 

For non-urgent queries you can email the team (monitored from 9am-5pm Monday to Friday) [email protected].

We are open 365 days of the year and see children and young people by appointment from 9am. 

If you think a child or young person is in danger, please call 999, or 111 if non urgent.  

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

CYPC is dedicated to providing a first-class service, striving for excellence and dedicated to continuous improvement of the service we provide our patients and other users.

There is a robust Quality Management System in place to underpin this assurance and to ensure the highest possible standards of performance excellence are achieved. The systems are tested by regular internal audit programmes, assessment by external accreditation organisations and quality peer proficiency review. There are written policies and standard operating procedures (SOPS) that guide practices, 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 (SARCs) will be 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.

Feedback

We are committed to providing a high-quality service and your feedback is extremely important to us. This will 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 to the Trust 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
Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Headquarters
The Freeman Hospital
High Heaton
Newcastle Upon Tyne
NE7 7DN

To make a complaint electronically please send the details in an email to [email protected]

A complaint can also be made via email to the Quality and Assurance Lead using the CYPC 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

CYPC services Management, staff and sub-contractors fully understand the importance of ethical conduct and impartiality in undertaking its service activities. Our services will therefore ensure that, in all its dealings with customers or potential customers, all employees or other personnel are and will remain impartial.

Frequently asked questions

Helpful resources