THE campaign group Act on IICSA, chaired by Professor Alexis Jay, who led the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), has welcomed further progress on the Government’s implementation of its recommendations.
On Tuesday, the Safeguarding Minister, Jess Phillips MP, announced, ahead of the spending review, that “the Home Office will double the funding it provides for national services supporting adult survivors of child sexual abuse, providing more help to those adults who are living with the trauma of the horrific abuse they suffered as children.”
It would also remove the three-year limitation period on victims and survivors bringing personal injury claims in the civil courts, to “speed up progress to make it easier for victims and survivors to get recompense directly from institutions that failed them”.
A statement from Act on IICSA on Wednesday said: “Additional funding to support survivors will help. We recognise the commitment shown by the current government and will continue to work with ministers on the detail.”
Ms Phillips also provided an update on announcements made by the Home Secretary in January (News, 10 January). This included a “process through which local authorities can access the £5 million national fund to support locally led work on grooming gangs.
“Following feedback from local authorities, the fund will adopt a flexible approach to support both full independent local inquiries and more bespoke work, including local victims’ panels or locally led audits into the handling of historic cases.”
At the Home Secretary’s request, Gavin Stephens, who chairs the National Police Chiefs’ Council, had “urged the chief constables of all 43 police forces in England and Wales to re-examine their investigations into group-based child sexual exploitation which resulted in no further action decisions”.
As of 1 April, the Child Sexual Abuse Review Panel were able to review child sexual abuse cases which took place after 2013, she said.
A government report published on Wednesday confirmed that, after two consultations in 2022 and 2023, one of IICSA’s 20 core recommendations — to broaden the scope of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme — would not be taken forward.
IICSA recommended that the scheme include other forms of child sexual abuse, such as online abuse, as well as unspent convictions, and that the time-limit for child sexual abuse applications increase. In a foreword to the report, Alex Davies-Jones MP writes that these changes would “undermine” the “principle of fairness” within the scheme.
In its statement, the campaign group Act on IICSA said that all 20 of IICSA’s core recommendations “require implementation in full to be truly effective. This means we will continue to press the Government to introduce a much-needed post of a cabinet office minister for children, a redress scheme, and improvements to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme.
“Whilst we understand the current financial challenges, victims and survivors of child sexual abuse deserve and must receive the acknowledgement and recompense accorded to other victims of national tragedies.”
The statement concluded: “Child sexual abuse has been neglected for too long. Preventing child sexual abuse must be prioritised in the upcoming government spending review.”
