Empowering Change: Effective Strategies to Combat Child Sexual Exploitation


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Last week, I outlined the measures this government is implementing to confront the abhorrent offenses of child sexual exploitation and abuse – which encompass compulsory reporting, a newly formed victims and survivors panel, a comprehensive review of data and police performance standards, stricter penalties for offenders, and assistance for local inquiries, including those in Oldham.

This morning, the Safeguarding Minister is convening with survivors from Oldham. Earlier this week, she and I had a meeting with Professor Alexis Jay, who chaired both the 7-year national Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse and the first local independent inquiry into grooming gangs in Rotherham.

Professor Jay’s most significant message to us was that the survivors who courageously recounted the heinous acts committed against them should not feel that their efforts were futile, as, despite numerous inquiries, their voices went unheard and no actions were taken.

In light of those discussions, I wish to inform the House about our subsequent steps to advance the recommendations from the inquiry and to intensify our efforts in addressing sexual exploitation and grooming both on the streets and online to ensure children’s safety.

The Independent National Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse released its final report in 2022.

This extensive inquiry took 7 years, received 7,000 personal testimonies, and reviewed 2 million pages of evidence. The accounts shared were harrowing narratives of horrific rapes, sexual violence, suffering, betrayal of vulnerable children by those meant to protect them, and individuals in influential positions who shamefully prioritized institutional reputation over child safety.

The inquiry produced distinct in-depth reports on:

Additionally, a 2-year inquiry, released in February 2022, focused on child sexual exploitation by organized networks and grooming gangs. This inquiry reviewed over 400 past recommendations and serious case assessments while gathering supplementary evidence. Furthermore, since then, there have been additional reports involving Telford and police performance.

However, in spite of all these national inquiries, reports, and numerous recommendations, far beyond insufficient action has been taken, and regrettably little advancement has been achieved. This situation requires amendment.

Thus, prior to Easter, the government plans to establish a definitive schedule for implementing the 20 recommendations derived from the final IICSA [Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse] report.

Four of these recommendations pertain specifically to the Home Office. I can affirm that we have fully accepted them, encompassing matters of disclosure and barring. Measures to address these are already in progress.

A cross-government ministerial group is presently evaluating and addressing the remaining recommendations, supported by our new victims and survivors panel.

Moreover, I can announce today that the government is committed to executing all other recommendations detailed in IICSA‘s separate independent report on grooming gangs from February 2022 – including updating crucial Department of Education guidance.

Now, let me address the domains where we must strive for enhancement.

As I previously stated, the primary objective should focus on increasing police investigations into these heinous crimes and ensuring that abusers face justice.

We will impose harsher sentencing for child grooming – making it an aggravating circumstance to orchestrate abuse and exploitation.

Additionally, I am announcing today new initiatives to assist victims in initiating more investigations and prosecutions.

I am broadening the scope of the independent Child Sexual Abuse Review Panel so that it encompasses not only historical cases predating 2013 but also all cases since then, ensuring that any abuse victim can request an independent review without having to revert to local institutions that previously chose not to advance their cases.

Today, I am writing to the National Police Chiefs Council to urge all chief constables to reassess historical gang exploitation cases categorized as ‘No Further Action’ and collaborate with the police Child Sexual Exploitation Taskforce to pursue new avenues of inquiry and re-open investigations when appropriate. These new initiatives will be reinforced by an additional £2 million in funding for the taskforce and the panel.

All police departments will be expected to apply the 2023 recommendations from His Majesty’s Inspectorate, which includes generating ‘problem profiles’ related to the nature of grooming gangs in their jurisdictions. Additionally, I have requested the Inspectorate to evaluate progress over the current year.

In addition to reviewing past cases, we also require significantly stronger measures to unveil the comprehensive extent and nature of these dreadful offenses.

The Child Sexual Exploitation Police Taskforce, headed by the National Police Chief’s Council, has estimated that of the 115,000 child sexual abuse offenses documented by the police in 2023, roughly 4,000 involved multiple perpetrators.

Among these, they identified approximately 1,100 that involved familial abuse, with over 300 cases occurring in institutions. Furthermore, they reported 717 instances of group or gang-related child sexual exploitation.

However, we understand that the vast majority of abuse remains unreported, so we anticipate that all these figures significantly underestimate the true situation.

The taskforce indicates that there are currently 127 significant police investigations ongoing related to child sexual exploitation and gang grooming across 29 different police forces.

Numerous major investigations have involved gangs of Pakistani heritage, and evidence gathered by the police taskforce also indicates exploitation and abuse across various communities and ethnicities. However, the data regarding the ethnicity of both offenders and victims remains insufficient.

As I noted last week, we will reform the data collection requirements from local areas as part of a new performance management framework.

Additionally, I have instructed the Child Sexual Exploitation Taskforce to swiftly broaden the ethnicity data it gathers and publishes – collecting details at the conclusion of investigations, when a clearer picture is available, rather than solely from the outset, when suspects may yet be unidentified.

To push our efforts further, I have tasked Baroness Louise Casey with overseeing a prompt audit to assess the current scale and nature of gang-based exploitation nationwide and to propose recommendations for necessary actions.

The specific 2022 IICSA report on gang exploitation concluded that a precise understanding of the prevalence of child sexual exploitation could not be attained from the data and evidence at its disposal, therefore this audit will aim to fill this void.

The audit will consider additional evidence that was not available previously. This includes data gathered by the police taskforce and the new ‘problem profiles’ prepared by police forces, and it will also encompass an equivalent audit of child protection referrals.

It will thoroughly analyze ethnicity data and the demographics of the gangs involved along with their victims, while looking into the cultural and societal factors that drive this type of offending across varying ethnic groups.

Furthermore, it will provide recommendations regarding additional analysis, investigations, and actions necessary to address these issues.

are essential to tackle contemporary and historical shortcomings.

Baroness Louise Casey, who authored the candid 2015 report on child sexual exploitation in Rotherham, has been requested to supervise this swift 3-month review, preceding the initiation of the Independent Commission into Adult Social Care.

In various regions throughout the nation, the emphasis must now shift towards enhancing police investigations and executing recommendations aimed at service improvements.

Moreover, we will extend stronger national support for local investigations where required to secure truth and justice for victims and survivors.

Last week, the Prime Minister and I met with survivors from Telford, who expressed immense appreciation for the manner in which the local investigation was carried out following numerous failings over many years.

This inquiry resulted in tangible transformations, such as the pilot implementation of CCTV in taxis and the recruitment of child sexual exploitation specialists in local secondary schools.

As demonstrated, effective local inquiries can probe into much deeper local specifics, providing more pertinent answers and facilitating changes than an extensive national inquiry can offer.

Tom Crowther KC, Chair of the Telford Inquiry, has consented to collaborate with the government to establish a new framework for victim-oriented, locally-driven inquiries, where necessary, and as a preliminary step, to partner with Oldham Council and up to four additional pilot areas.

This will also encompass assistance for local authorities wishing to investigate alternative methods of aiding victims, which may include forming local panels or leveraging the experiences from the IICSA Truth Project.

Madam Deputy Speaker, the government is in the process of formulating a Duty of Candour as part of the long-anticipated Hillsborough Law. Consequently, we will cooperate with mayors and local councils to enhance accountability mechanisms that can support and monitor local inquiries, ensuring that those complicit in cover-ups or attempting to evade scrutiny are consistently held accountable, and that truth and justice are never obstructed.

This new initiative for national support of local inquiries will be underpinned by an extra £5 million of funding to kickstart additional local work.

Because at every level, obtaining justice for victims and safeguarding children is a collective duty.

In conclusion, Madam Deputy Speaker, we cannot overlook the evolving nature of child exploitation as offenders utilize new technologies to target and groom children, and we should all be profoundly concerned about the accelerated growth of exploitation beginning online.

Hence, we are reinforcing the efforts of the Home Office-funded Undercover Online Network of police officers to target online offenders, along with advancing state-of-the-art AI tools and other innovative capabilities to infiltrate livestreams and chat rooms where child grooming occurs. Additional measures will be revealed in the Crime and Policing Bill aimed at addressing those orchestrating online child sexual abuse.

Madam Deputy Speaker, nothing is more important than our children’s safety.

However, for far too long, this appalling abuse was permitted to endure, victims were overlooked, offenders went unpunished, and far too many individuals chose to look away.

Even when these appalling crimes came to light, national inquiries were established to unveil the truth, yet the resulting reports were too frequently left unattended, allowing their recommendations to remain unheeded.

Thus, under this administration, that has been altered. We are taking measures not only on those recommendations but also on additional actions needed to protect victims, incarcerate perpetrators, and unveil the truth wherever discrepancies have arisen.

This pertains to the safeguarding of children, the defense of young girls, and the bold and ambitious objective we have set for this government to reduce violence against women and girls by half within a decade.

I trust that all ministers will endorse this mission and support the measures outlined today to achieve it. I commend this statement to the house.


This page was generated programmatically; to view the article in its original form, please visit the link below:
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/next-steps-to-tackle-child-sexual-exploitation
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