Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of funding for (a) therapeutic and (b) advocacy support for victims of child sexual abuse.

Supporting victims of child sexual abuse, whether they are children or adult survivors, is a priority for the Government and we are taking steps to ensure that adequate funding is in place for specialist support services across the country providing both therapeutic and advocacy support. For example:

The Home Office and Ministry of Justice have doubled the funding available for voluntary sector organisations providing direct support to victims and survivors at a national level through the Support for Victims and Survivors of CSA fund. The SVSCSA will provide £2.4m up to 2022 to support vital national services including support lines, online resources and remote counselling. We have also introduced a new £2.8m transformation fund to promote and embed best practice in CSA victim support.

The Ministry of Justice has awarded £12m to 91 rape support centres across England and Wales to provide independent, specialist support to female and male victims of sexual violence. This is an increase of £4m from 2019/20 and includes £1.8m of ringfenced funding for victims of recent and non-recent child sexual abuse. The new funding is in addition to the £4.79m provided to Police and Crime Commissioners by the Ministry of Justice to support victims of child sexual abuse (part of the £69m provided this year for them to commission victim support service based on local need).

The Government also recently announced an additional £4m per year until 2022 for recruiting more Independent Sexual Violence Advisers (ISVAs) to help victims feel informed and supported at every stage of their recovery journey. ISVAs provide an important link between police, support services and criminal justice agencies.

We have also increased spending from £31m in 2018 to £39m this year to improve services and pathways for survivors and victims of sexual violence, including child sexual abuse, who seek support from Sexual Assault Referral Centres, regardless of age or gender.

We are committed to ensuring that victims can continue to access such support during the COVID-19 pandemic and recently announced a £76m package of funding for victims, with £10 million ringfenced to provide support for victims of sexual violence specifically. This has helped fund technology to enable charities to offer services remotely.