In the last 10 years, there have been 81 police investigations into allegations that children have been abused because of faith or witchcraft-based beliefs in London alone.
The National Action Plan to Tackle Child Abuse Linked to Faith or Belief includes proposals to create a training pack of stories for schools and develop campaigns designed to raise awareness of the issue among potential victims of ritual abuse.
Children and young people “need to learn to protect themselves against this type of abuse when they feel it is happening to them,” the plan says. “There is not enough focus on children or listening to their views."
The action plans meanwhile recommends enabling children who have been victims of ritual abuse to tell their stories through drama and poetry.
Drawn up with faith leaders, charities, the Metropolitan Police, and local authorities, the plan says professionals must work more closely with local communities and churches to prevent abuse.
It proposes better training for social workers, teachers and health workers so they can recognise when “abuse linked to belief” is occurring. It argues that this kind of abuse is not recognised as a child protection issue by some professionals and calls on the Association of Directors of Children’s Services and the London Safeguarding Children Board to lead improvements in frontline practice.
It also sets out work to increase access to psychological and therapeutic support for victims and boost the number of prosecutions of perpetrators of abuse, by improving support for victims to give evidence in court and more awareness of how faith-based abuse relates to other crimes, including trafficking and sexual exploitation.
According to the Department for Education, evidence suggests that children subjected to faith-based abuse are often being treated as a scapegoat for family stress, domestic violence, substance abuse and mental health problems.
“The most vulnerable people within a group offer the least ability to resist being scapegoated, and children are a group who are inherently vulnerable, needing protection from adults around them,” the plan says.
The NSPCC was among a number of organsaitions involved in the working group which drew up the plan.
NSPCC chief executive Andrew Flanagan said: “Everyone must play their part by watching out for unusual activity and reporting it as early as possible. We must never forget this is about child cruelty not culture and we cannot afford to wait until another child is murdered before decisive action is taken.”
Children’s minister Tim Loughton warned that there are no easy solutions to solving the issue of witchcraft-based abuse. ?“This will require hard work building intelligence on the ground so social workers, carers and police can step in early to protect children at risk and bring perpetrators to justice,” he said.
The Churches Child Protection Advisory Service (CCPAS) is now calling on Local Safeguarding Children’s Boards “to engage with their local faith communities as an urgent priority”.
Simon Bass, chief executive of CCPAS, said: “We are pleased that government and all members of the working group have understood the gravity of the problem and recognise that a multi-layered approach is needed if the evil of faith-based abuse is to be combated successfully. We now look forward to working with all parties particularly faith leaders to implement its proposals.”
