THREE years to the day for the reason that Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) published its final recommendations, a recent campaign has been launched to deal with the “growing government inaction and unacceptably slow progress” on their implementation.
IICSA was chaired by Professor Alexis Jay, who presented its findings and 20 key recommendations on 20 October 2022 (News, 20 October 2022). Since then, none has been fully implemented, although, in January, the then Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, pledged to introduce mandatory reporting of kid sexual abuse, beneficial by IICSA, in order that failure to report would develop into an offence, incurring skilled and criminal sanctions (News, 10 January).
In April, the Safeguarding Minister, Jess Phillips MP, announced recent funding for survivors, and that the Home Office would remove the three-year limitation period on victims’ and survivors’ bringing personal injury claims within the civil courts (News, 11 April).
In the Commons on 16 June, Ms Cooper reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to implementing all of the IICSA suggestion relevant to the Home Office in full. “That work is either accomplished or well under way,” she told Sam Carling MP (North West Cambridgeshire, Labour).
Professor Jay now chairs Act on IICSA, which is looking on the Government to fulfil its guarantees further on child protection. On Monday, the campaign group launched “The Elephant within the Room”, speaking of “the stark reality that, despite IICSA providing a transparent blueprint for change, the UK continues to disregard the alarming truth that an estimated 500,000 children are sexually abused every yr, with fewer than one in five ever disclosing their abuse, even when directly asked”.
John O’Brien, a core group member who was also on the Inquiry panel with Professor Jay, said: “IICSA laid out exactly what must change to guard children from sexual abuse. Yet three years later, those recommendations remain largely unimplemented. This failure to act leaves our kids vulnerable to damaging their futures and is in lots of cases, taking their lives.”
Another core group member of Act on IICSA, Lucy Duckworth, said: “We are still ignoring the elephant within the room. Half one million children are being sexually abused every yr, and although we’ve the plans for immediate motion, we still refuse to run with them. There isn’t any excuse for this delay.
“If IICSA’s recommendations had been implemented, lots of the cases within the headlines today might have been prevented or actually intercepted earlier. This inaction on child sexual abuse can be a stain on our history and it’s now as much as all of us to be certain that it must end now.”
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