Charity chief urges Prime Minister to create CSE national inquiry

4Children chief executive Anne Longfield has written to Prime Minister David Cameron to make the case for why a national inquiry is needed following the publication last week of the Jay report that found 1,400 children and young people had been victims of systematic sexual abuse over 16 years in Rotherham.

The government has vowed to incorporate the findings from Rotherham into its recently announced historical child abuse inquiry, but Longfield argues this gives a “false impression” the issue is in the past when many believe CSE is a growing and widespread problem.

4Children is also concerned that the full extent of systemic neglect and agency failings identified in the Jay report will not be fully scrutinised or addressed if it is part of a wider inquiry.

In her letter, Longfield says the extent and severity of the Rotherham abuse merits a “high-level, time-limited, Prime Ministerial-led inquiry” that should focus on what went wrong in Rotherham; the extent of CSE across the UK; what needs to be done to tackle the problem; and how agencies and communities need to change in order for allegations of CSE to be taken more seriously.  

Longfield said: “We are calling on the Prime Minister to establish a stand-alone inquiry to reveal the true extent of child sexual exploitation in Rotherham and other areas and answer questions about how and why services continue to fail our children. Adding it to the remit of an historical abuse inquiry misses the point. This week alone a number of potential new victims have come forward.  

“Perpetrators of these horrific crimes were allowed to continue their abuse for decades because nothing was done to stop them. Yet the key findings from the report – agencies not working together and children not being listened to – are not new ones and government must act now to ensure that children’s voices are never ignored again when abuse of this kind is reported.

“The full scale of this systemic failure may never be known, but government must act now to carry out an urgent and transparent investigation to listen to and protect children and make sure this never happens again in Rotherham or anywhere else in the UK.”

More than nine out of 10 votes in a CYP Now poll currently support a national inquiry into CSE being established.

The call has also been backed by the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives (Solace). Its president, Mark Rogers said: “Solace is already on record as seeking a national initiative in which we confront, challenge and, ultimately, change those societal attitudes that create the conditions in which child sexual exploitation can thrive.

“It is not enough simply to examine how the checks and balances that are the responsibility of professionals can be improved. National and local leaders – political, professional, religious and community – need to lead a examination of our collective conscience and agree how we tackle those values and cultures that ignore, misunderstand or condone abuse."
 
The independent inquiry into CSE in Rotherham by Alexis Jay, former Scottish chief inspector of social work, criticised senior managers in the police and children’s services in the Yorkshire town for failing to act on warnings by youth and social workers about systematic abuse taking place between 1997 and 2013.

The inquiry into allegations of historical child abuse was established in July by Home Secretary Theresa May to investigate failings of state and non-state institutions that have come to light in abuse cases brought against high-profile public figures. It is yet to appoint a chair following the resignation of initial appointee Baroness Butler-Sloss.