After the child abuse scandal in Rotherham, the education secretary orders an inspection of child protection services there. But do victims nationwide still face a culture of disbelief?
Education Secretary Nicky Morgan said that Ofsted would carry out an early inspection of child protection services in the town of Rotherham. The order follows the publication of a damning report which uncovered 1,400 cases of abuse and child exploitation over 16 years – and very few prosecutions by police.
In a statement, Ms Morgan said: I will not hesitate to take further action if necessary to ensure children are safe.”
Also on Thursday afternoon, Deputy South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner Tracey Cheetham resigned from her post, and called on police commissioner Shaun Wright to do the same.
He was the cabinet member responsible for children’s services in Rotherham from 2005 to 2010, and has so far resisted widespread calls to resign, including from Prime Minister David Cameron.
In a separate report by the police watchdog, it has emerged that South Yorkshire Police’s public protection unit (PPU) had failed to investigate allegations of sex crimes, and had an “unacceptable” culture. A report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) said that officers had spent “a great deal of time trying to disprove” what victims were saying.
In a statement, the education secretary said: “Like anyone else I have been appalled by the terrible accounts of abuse in Rotherham and the failings that allowed it to continue for so long.
The only thing surprising about Rotherham is the fact that it was uncovered. Rotherham isn’t an unusual case. Natalie Collins
“My immediate priority is to ensure children are being properly cared for today so Children’s Minister Edward Timpson has written to the council seeking urgent reassurance about how they are responding to the issues identified in the report in respect of current social work practice.
In his letter to Rotherham council, Mr Timpson said: “Like many others, I found the scale of the failure to safeguard children, over such a long period, genuinely shocking… The home secretary has already announced a national inquiry that will investigate historic allegations of child sexual abuse… My interest is in ensuring, quickly, that the current arrangements for safeguarding children in Rotherham, in particular in respect of child sexual exploitation, are robust and enable children there to grow up as safely as possible.”
The inspection will look at how the council is dealing with risk management and risk assessment, concerns of which were raised in the report, and that the council is has a “proper focus” on identifying potential victims who are at risk of exploitation.
The police force at the centre of the Rotherham child abuse scandal has come under damning criticism for its failure to investigate and prosecute child abuse cases.
The report released on Tuesday found that officers only prosecuted one in 17 child sex reports in 2013. And on Thursday, HMIC Chief Inspector Tom Winsor called for an end to officers’ “disregard for victims”.
However child protection experts told Channel 4 News that child abuse victims are often met with disbelief and blame among authorities.
Natalie Collins, an independent consultant on the delivery of child protection services, said: “The only thing surprising about Rotherham is the fact that it was uncovered. Rotherham isn’t an unusual case.”
And when it comes to attitudes among the prosecution services, she said: “There are deeply-held myths across the police and judicial system blaming women for the abuse they suffer. The misconceptions are increasing… The eroticisation of childhood means in some ways we are going in the other direction.”
Catherine Costello, Senior Lecturer in Social Work at De Montfort University Leicester, also Channel 4 News: “I can’t begin to tell you how bad it is. The reality is, it is nothing new. The problem is endemic throughout professional services… Professionals work in silos but don’t communicate.”
But there is some hope: the NSPCC said there has been a marked improvement in recent years among the CPS and the police, who have “upped their game” in taking abuse allegations seriously – the CPS has completely rewritten its advice on how to deal with sex abuse victims for example, so that a girl being drunk does not make officers “hesitate” before going to court.
“But we need to be sure that the kind of attitude that clearly existed in Rochdale and Rotherham is gone for good,” said a spokesman. “Those in charge of children’s service must set a clear culture of reporting, and more importantly, acting on abuse claims. They must start from a position of taking everything seriously until given reason not to.
“We must be clear that no child can consent to sex no matter how ‘willing’ they may appear and the abuser always must take full responsibility for their actions.”