Government yet to fulfil major CSE strategy pledges
Neil Puffett
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
The government is yet to deliver on three major elements of its child sexual exploitation (CSE) strategy more than a year after it was unveiled, it has emerged.
The strategy, which was launched by Prime Minister David Cameron in March 2015, contained a raft of measures to tackle CSE in the wake of revelations that 1,400 children in Rotherham were sexually exploited between 1997 and 2013.
Prominent among these were plans to create a national centre for expertise on child abuse, establish a child sexual abuse taskforce, and to launch a consultation on a new offence of “wilful neglect” for professionals working with children that could result in a jail term of up to five years.
The three ideas were cited by the government as being among the “highlights” of the strategy, but, as yet none of them have been launched.
Funding for the national centre of expertise in tackling child abuse had been due to be outlined in last autumn’s spending review – which was announced in November. But Treasury documents make no mention of the initiative and CYP Now understands it is yet to launch.
The same is the case for the child sexual abuse taskforce, which is intended to support areas struggling to tackle the problem. A similar taskforce in Scotland was launched last April.
Meanwhile, Home Office minister Karen Bradley, speaking at an NSPCC conference in June 2015, said a public consultation on the wilful neglect law would launch "this year" – but it is yet to materialise.
Labour MP Sarah Champion, shadow minister for preventing abuse and domestic violence, said it is “appalling” that a national taskforce for tackling child sexual exploitation is yet to be established.
“For the last 18 months I have been raising the urgent need for it,” she said.
“At the [CSE] summit in March last year I was pleased to see the government make a commitment to establishing such a taskforce. But they haven’t delivered on that pledge, or others to protect victims.
“A year on and we still don’t have details on the scope, constitution or objective of this taskforce.”
Children’s Commissioner for England, Anne Longfield, said the leadership shown by the government and the implementation of its strategy are "critical to tackling child sexual exploitation and abuse".
"That is why we are working closely with them to ensure the strategy is delivered," she added.
“We are aware that some scheduling of the activities in the strategy may have changed but we also believe that the government remains firmly committed to addressing child abuse.
“They are currently looking at new approaches to interviewing children who may have been abused following recommendations in the report we published last year.”
Karen Bradley, Home Office minister for preventing abuse, exploitation and crime, said tackling child sexual abuse and exploitation is a "top priority" for the government.
"That is why we are launching the new the Child Sexual Exploitation Response Unit later this year. We will also be launching a consultation on options to strengthen arrangements in relation to reporting and acting on child abuse or neglect where it is a professional responsibility to do so, including sanctions for wilful, deliberate or reckless failures to act.
“On top of this, we will be setting up a new national Centre of Expertise, which will create a shared understanding of what works to prevent child sexual abuse.
“Victims and survivors of abuse are more than ever feeling confident to report their experiences and we will continue to deliver measures to tackle child sexual exploitation.”
