Children: Sexual Abuse

Baroness Howarth of Breckland Excerpts

Tuesday 15th October 2013 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Howarth of Breckland]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to prevent child sex abuse, and what support they are giving to organisations involved in preventing such abuse.

[Baroness Howarth of Breckland (CB)]

My Lords, research suggests that at least one in 20 young adults in the UK experienced sexual abuse as a child, but most incidents are not reported to the police. Three-quarters of children who are abused do not tell anyone about it at the time, as has been so graphically illustrated by the Jimmy Savile scandal. Services for children and telephone helplines are a key part of the child protection framework, but it is for the Government to set that framework and to ensure that local authorities, working through their safeguarding programmes, together with the voluntary sector, carry this forward.

I therefore welcome the consultancy group established by Damian Green in the other place and I ask the Minister, the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, to ensure that this debate is brought to his attention and to that of the chair of the group. My own assessment is that primary prevention remains a weak link in the plans, with emphasis on secondary and tertiary prevention. That means that we need more emphasis on ensuring that every effort is made to stop it before it happens—in the words of the campaign, “Stop it now”. In addition, there appears to be a gap in the work of the group relating to young people and children who abuse other children. Only if these two areas are placed at the centre of the work of the Home Office group will it come anywhere near its mission of:

“Reducing the vulnerability of victims”.

With this issue having such a high profile, I am indeed grateful to be given the opportunity for this debate, although in 10 minutes I can but scratch the surface. Good intervention will make all the difference to thousands of children, for the numbers, despite the progress that we have made, remain disturbing.

A recent NSPCC report looking at the disclosure of childhood abuse shows that one in 20 children being abused equates, in 2012-13, to 18,195 sexual crimes against children under l6 being recorded in England and Wales. It also says that, despite the recent high-profile celebrity cases, 90% of children are being abused by someone they know. This often happens in their own home, and that is something that we should not lose sight of. Around one-third of offences are perpetrated by other children and young people, as I have just mentioned.

The present system still leaves too much responsibility on the child victim when ultimately it is for adults to protect children from abuse. One of those adults who made a step change was Lucy Faithfull, and I declare an interest as a vice-chair of the Lucy Faithfull Foundation. As a Conservative Peer of some standing, she caused consternation to her Whips by leading mini-revolts on children’s issues. She was committed to her party but she was just more committed to children. As a children’s officer, she understood the issues around child sexual abuse well before many of her colleagues. Therefore, when asked to help the Gracewell Clinic, which later became the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, she took it to her heart. She deserves that the present Government support her legacy.

This year is the 20th anniversary of the foundation but the work has not been without its difficulties. Despite the skilled staff leading in the field of understanding the treatment of abusers and the highly successful clinic at Epsom, it was closed when the hospital was redeveloped. The then Government promised to fund an alternative site—indeed, to develop a range of similar facilities based on the knowledge and success of the clinic, but they never materialised. I am afraid that we had placards outside some of the facilities held by children saying, “Not on our doorstep”. One understands this, but during our whole time at Epsom we never had one incident when a man stepped outside the boundaries that he had been set in his programme. I wonder how much further we might be in the work had the clinic continued, and I ask the Minister what plans the Government have to give community residential programmes to men discharged from prison at a time when these men are most vulnerable to reoffending.

Before I move on, I acknowledge and commend the work of Circles of Support, a scheme developed by the Quakers, where volunteers provide a safe place for men who have offended and returned home. Most people shun these men for what they have done, which is understandable. It takes a very special volunteer to befriend them, but in doing so they are an essential part of protecting children, as well as giving these men new hope. We have to remember that whatever they have done they have to continue their lives, and unless they are helped they remain a danger to children.

When I collaborated with Lucy in the days before the foundation, I was chief executive of ChildLine. It was even more difficult then than now for children to be listened to and believed, and I congratulate all who have worked to shorten the time before children come forward. The changes in court procedures and safeguarding programmes have helped but there remains room for improvement. What work continues to ensure that courts are child-friendly while still quite properly ensuring a fair hearing for the defendant? We still hear of children being intimidated in court even when they are placed behind screens, and there should be more room for them to have advocates.

During the collaboration between ChildLine and the Lucy Faithfull Foundation in the early 2000s, it became apparent that there was a need for a helpline to give advice to adults concerned about their own thoughts and feelings towards children. ChildLine volunteers were trained to focus on children, so in 2003 the Stop it Now! confidential freephone service was launched by the foundation. It has grown from taking 1,000 calls in 2003 to just under 6,000 calls in 2012. The demand has grown despite limited publicity and no advertising. Calls are taken from adult abusers and those at risk of abusing. Time does not allow me to give too many examples, but they tell the story. The group for whom there is most concern if they fail to get help consists of abusers and those at risk of abuse. Paul, a window cleaner, was having sexual thoughts about children. He went to the police for help, but was told they could deal with him only if he committed an offence. They suggested that he talk to the probation service, which said that it could offer treatment only if he had been convicted of an offence, so he went to his GP who told him that everyone had these thoughts occasionally. Finally, he found the helpline and received advice on how to manage these thoughts and the terrible things that he felt tempted to do. Other groups calling for help include parents and young men accessing indecent images of children online.

Core funding for the helpline comes from a grant from the Ministry of Justice without which the service could not continue, so the foundation would like to acknowledge the wisdom of this support in difficult times. It is topped up by donations. Your Lordships can understand how difficult it is to raise money to help in this area, and demand has grown to a level which cannot be met. The helpline takes an average of 550 calls a month from 300 callers but has between 1,500 and 2,000 missed calls—missed opportunities to intervene in possible abuse. The work undertaken via a callback service that can provide vital face-to-face meetings is no longer funded, and men can receive that only if they are prepared to pay for it themselves.

We are of course all familiar with recent developments on the internet and the strong political drive to make the internet safer for children and to reduce the occurrence of online offending involving viewing, downloading, making and/or distributing indecent images of children. I recognise the outstanding work of the Internet Watch Foundation. No doubt this is a topic other noble Lords will cover as it needs more time, but I hope that the Government will continue to press the internet industry to play its part.

Parents and carers use the line. They are often ill equipped to prevent child sexual abuse of their own children. Research conducted as part of the work of the Lucy Faithfull Foundation with these groups showed that 59% of those questioned were not as confident as they would like to be when it came to protecting their own children. With 7.7 million families in the UK having dependent children, this could mean that 4.5 million families are lacking this confidence. Yet the foundation’s hugely successful Parents Plus programme, part of the Stop it Now! campaign ceased. Not only the groups but other parts of the programme will be closed down. Stop it Now! is fully supported by the Governments in Scotland and Wales but sadly not in England. I wonder whether the Minister can explain why the Government have removed their commitment to this programme.

Children also need the tools to protect themselves, and as part of this have the right to high quality sex and relationship education. The ChildLine Schools Service is an example of how one charity is trying to protect children from abuse by using preventive education in schools, and I am sure that the Minister is aware of the wide support given by professionals to the Daily Telegraph’s call to update the sex and relationship guidance to schools. Does the Department of Education have plans to update this guidance? What steps are being taken to complete the task?

I have spent a lifetime in this work and know that we could do more, and do it smarter, to prevent the continuing terrible scourge of child sexual abuse. Of course, the work is multifaceted and we should remind ourselves that some abusers are so dangerous that they must never return to the community. My experience has not made me soft but, like Lucy Faithfull, I know that the problem has to be dealt with at every level. I hope that the Government will listen to those calling for a public health model of prevention. This means deterrence, treatment and taking steps to prevent abuse ever taking place through community awareness and education programmes. The impact on victims is long-term and devastating. It costs money in repercussions on the mental health and penal services. We can and should do more to prevent it ever happening to any child in our society.