Child Abuse Help

Law

Let(s) End the horror of child sexual abuse

Protect Five Million Children from Sexual Abuse.

Lend your support by signing this petition to pressure the government to train teachers in the battle against child sexual abuse. #PreventEd #FiveMillionChildrenSafe

Rt Hon Sajid Javid Health Secretary, speaking in his previous role as chair of the CSJ inquiry recognised the scale of this horrific problem. "The violation of a child, whether for profit or personal gratification,is an appalling crime.We're facing nothing short of a child sexual abuse epidemic.”

Ending child sexual abuse in the UK should be the government’s top priority.

Put simply, it isn’t. Apart from RT Hon Sajid Javid’s comments, government after government have failed to deal with this growing problem and turned a blind eye, citing the strain on the social services, police, the courts and the prison system. It’s the hidden secret that no one likes to talk about.

Until now.

Without your support in pressuring the government to pass the right laws, over 5 million innocent children remain at high risk.

We must act now to end this blight on our society.

How can you help?

Our aims for this petition are simple. With your support, we aim to pressure the government to implement new legislation so we can:

Educate 265,000 teachers so they have the tools and the know how to recognise the tell-tale signs that child abuse is occurring.

Empower teachers in the fight against child sex abuse by training them about how to respond to signs of abuse and report their concerns

Protect over 5 million innocent victims of child sex abuse by legislating for the biggest change to the system in 20 years in order to stop this growing epidemic of abuse

Who can children trust?

We are all taught about stranger danger. But that only accounts for 10% of child sexual abuse cases. The other 90% of these devastating violations against children are committed by family members, friends and people known to the family.

So, who do children trust outside of their families? Who can they report these horrendous crimes to?

Teachers play a huge role in shaping, nurturing and supporting our children through their most impressionable years. So, it is logical that if we empower the teachers, if we train them how to spot the signs, if we provide them with a system where they can be confident that when a child confides in them, there will be action, we can have a huge impact on protecting as many vulnerable children as possible.

We are not alone in recognising that our teachers are a fundamental part of the process of spotting and reporting signs of horrendous abuse. The Centre for Social Justice, The Centre for Expertise on Sexual Abuse and the NSPCC all understand the vital role that teachers play in this fight:

Schools should adopt a ‘whole-school’ approach to child sexual abuse, meaning every staff member should be equipped with the relevant training to identify the signs of abuse and have the knowledge of next steps. Centre for Social Justice

“It’s also crucial we don’t miss the signs when a child is being victimised, and that we support them to tell a trusted adult. Particularly for those being abused at home, the best place for this can be school.”Rt Hon Sajid Javid

By signing this petition:

You are telling the government that child sexual abuse has to stop now

You are empowering 265,000 teachers to be our first defence against this abhorrent abuse

You are giving over 5 million vulnerable children a voice.

Reasons why we need PreventEd Laws?

1. ONE in THREE Children never disclose abuse. Others face huge barriers to stop them sharing (Radford, 2011). Intra-familial abuse is a massive barrier to, clouded with complicated emotions like loyalty, love, fear and a wish to protect other family members.

2. A staggering ONE in SIX children experience sexual abuse before the age of 16. Establishing the true incidence of child sexual abuse is notoriously difficult because of the hidden nature and under-reporting of this crime. In reality, the number could be much, much higher.

3. OVER 90% of abuse cases are committed by a family member or people known to the family (Radford, 2011). Statistically speaking, the stranger-danger narrative around child sexual abuse only accounts for a mere 10% of sexual abuse cases.

4. Evidence shows teachers are arguably the most trusted adult in society outside of the home. Children are more likely to disclose to teachers, yet OVER 70% have not received training in preventing, recognising or responding to child sexual abuse.

Why Existing Laws are not Sufficient

Governments have argued for adapting existing legislation to fill the gaps. However, it is our view that this won't work for the reasons below;

1. The UK has no existing laws that cover mandatory child sexual abuse prevention training of teachers and staff within schools.

2. The current safeguarding training within school settings does not sufficiently cover CSA and early-stage interventions.

3. Whilst there is some CSA prevention training carried out, it is not consistent, and lacks certification and accreditation by the Department of Education.

4. Unlike most countries around the world that have some form of mandatory CSA reporting for regulated environments such as schools, the UK has only discretionary requirements.

Our PreventEd Law

Legislation to introduce mandatory accredited training for all teachers and school staff in child sexual abuse prevention. Schools need to adopt a "whole school" approach to tackling and preventing systematic abuse. This legislation looks for every staff member to understand, identify, and manage the reporting phase.

Should we succeed in our mission to push the government into changing legislation, the PreventEd training course will be delivered through online and mobile E-Learning applications providing the necessary flexibility for teachers. E-Learning allows continuous reinforcement of content and skills, and will allow all primary schools to be trained within months, unlike school-based workshop training. We advocate that the Department for Education certifies best practice guidelines and quality assurance.

Key Resources

(1) Most schools responding to my survey teach personal, social, health, internet safety, and bullying. However, only a half of primary school's report teaching topics related to sexual exploitation and abuse, compared to 90 percent of secondary schools: - Anne Longfield, Children's Commissioner for England. https://dera.ioe.ac.uk/28995/1/Preventing%20CSA%20The%20Role%20of%20Schools%20CCO%20April%202017%201.2.pdf

(2) "The violation of a child, whether for profit or personal gratification, is an appalling crime. We're facing nothing short of a child sexual abuse epidemic.

It’s also crucial we don’t miss the signs when a child is being victimised, and that we support them to tell a trusted adult. Particularly for those being abused at home, the best place for this can be school. Rt Hon Sajid Javid, Home Secretary, 2018–19, Health Secretary, 2021 – Present. https://www.sajidjavid.com/news/sajid-javid-we-must-confront-child-sexual-abuse

(3) Schools should adopt a ‘whole-school’ approach to child sexual abuse, meaning every staff member should be equipped with the relevant training to identify the signs of abuse and have the knowledge of next steps.

Department for Education should issue guidance for primary school teachers on how to handle questions related to sex that go beyond the Relationships Education curriculum (Recommendations from centre of social justice). https://www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk/library/unsafe-children-driving-up-our-countrys-response-to-child-sexual-abuse-and-exploitation

(4) Too often, child sexual abuse goes undetected. The Government will strive to ensure professionals working with children have the skills and information they need to recognise and respond appropriately to all forms of child sexual abuse, so that more children and young people are identified and get the support they need. Home Office Tackling Child Sexual Abuse Strategy 2021 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/973236/Tackling_Child_Sexual_Abuse_Strategy_2021.pdf

(5) The NSPCC has been clear; it's a compelling motivator for young people to disclose their concerns if they're heard. Professionals must be empowered to deploy curiosity appropriately without being deterred by fears that such interventions could encourage false disclosures or compromise potential criminal justice outcomes.

With this in mind, we echo the call of the Children's Commissioner for schools to adopt a "whole-school" approach to child/broader abuse. This essentially means every staff member should be equipped with the relevant training to identify the signs and have the knowledge to action the next steps. NSPCC https://dera.ioe.ac.uk/28995/1/Preventing%20CSA%20The%20Role%20of%20Schools%20CCO%20April%202017%201.2.pdf

(6) The Centre for Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse states that it's critically important for children to have access to safe adults they can trust and who respond appropriately to any disclosures.

Teachers are the professionals to whom children will most commonly disclose, but the disclosure process can be helped or hindered by the way in which any professional engages with a child about whom concerns exist. The Centre for Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse
https://www.csacentre.org.uk/resources/key-messages/intra-familial-csa/ https://www.csacentre.org.uk/resources/key-messages/disclosures-csa/

(7) It is estimated the financial and non-financial (monetised) cost relating to all victims who began to experience, or continued to experience, contact CSA in England and Wales in the year ending 31st March 2019. This is estimated to be at least £10.1 billion (this does not include the costs associated with online and non-contact sexual abuse, following the same underlying approach used in ‘The economic and social costs of crime’ (Heeks et al., 2018) the estimate includes costs) Home Office - The economic and social cost of contact child sexual abuse Published 13 December 2021https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-economic-and-social-cost-of-contact-child-sexual-abuse/the-economic-and-social-cost-of-contact-child-sexual-abuse

(8) One in five adults aged 18 to 74 years experienced at least one form of child abuse, whether emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, or witnessing domestic violence or abuse, before the age of 16 years (8.5 million people), according to the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW)
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/articles/childabuseextentandnatureenglandandwales/yearendingmarch2019

(9) Barnardo’s says boys and children under 10, as well as minority groups including BAME, LGBTQ and disabled children and young people, are even more likely to be hidden victims of child sexual abuse and are routinely being missed in safeguarding, risk assessment and prevention work.
Research by the Children’s Commissioner shows that professionals are not always confident in their ability to identify child sexual abuse, and levels of knowledge and confidence on how to progress concerns vary.
https://www.barnardos.org.uk/news/child-sexual-abuse-far-more-widespread-people-believe-says-barnardos-1