I am a consultant paediatrician and work within the NHS as a clinical lead for a children's sexual assault referral centre (SARC). We know within our service that some groups of people meet additional barriers in accessing support after sexual violence and that our service does not engage well with some seldom heard groups. These challenges are seen in other SARCs and sexual violence services across the UK.

I would like to explore how other high-income countries engage with seldom heard groups to see what does and doesn't work and what we can learn to shape services in the UK. Also, as is the case with a number of health services, many SARC services are now centralised in urban areas but need to provide an equitable service to rural areas. I would like to see how other high-income countries make this work.

To do this I will visit urban and rural sexual abuse and assault response services in Canada and Alaska and talk to professionals in these areas to see what the challenges are, what works, what 'good' might look like and what can be applied in the UK. I then hope to share this learning locally to shape my own regional service and bring the findings to a number of national forums.