Cameron vows to tackle ‘industrial scale’ child abuse

Children in Britain have suffered sexual abuse on an “industrial scale” with the authorities failing to act, David Cameron said.

The Prime Minister called a Downing Street summit to address the issue following a series of child sexual exploitation scandals in areas including Rotherham and Oxfordshire.

He said too many people and organisations had been “walking on by” and failing to tackle the problem.

Senior public officials and councillors who fail to protect children from sexual exploitation will face up to five years in jail under a new criminal offence being considered by the Government as part of the plan to ensure “this stops here”, Mr Cameron said.

Under the proposals unveiled by Mr Cameron and subject to consultation, the crime of “wilful neglect” will be extended to cover children’s social care and education, with unlimited fines for individuals and organisations shown to have let children down.

A new national helpline will be established to help professionals blow the whistle on failings in care for children. And senior staff who leave councils after abuse scandals could see their pay-offs clawed back if it is shown they failed to protect children under their responsibility.

Speaking in Number 10, Mr Cameron said: “What I’m determined to do as Prime Minister is that we end the ‘walk on by’ culture that too many police forces and social work departments have demonstrated.”

The child protection summit brought together police, council chiefs, healthcare experts and ministers with victims of abuse and their representatives.

The summit was called in response to a series of damning reports of sexual exploitation of up to 1,400 children over many years in Rotherham and came as another inquiry found hundreds of girls may have been abused in Oxfordshire.

Child sex abuse has been prioritised as a “national threat”, like serious and organised crime, meaning that police forces, chief constables and police and crime commissioners have a duty to collaborate with each other across boundaries to safeguard children.

Addressing the meeting, Mr Cameron said: “The aim of today is to just take the first step to make sure we take all the actions across the police, across social services, across local authorities, to make sure we deal with this far, far better to stop it happening again in other areas.”

He continued: “I think it’s very important we take a step back and just recognise the horrific nature of what has happened in our country.

“Young girls – and they are young girls – being abused over and over again on an industrial scale, being raped, being passed from one bunch of perpetrators to another bunch of perpetrators.

“And all the while this has happened with too many organisations and too many people walking on by.

“And we have got to really resolve that this stops here, it doesn’t happen again and we recognise abuse for what it is.”

He called for a “massive dose of common sense” to be injected into the way the problem was tackled by the authorities, “tearing down the barriers” to help agencies work together.

Mr Cameron said he had heard “absolutely horrific” stories of abuse from victims of the Rotherham scandal “that are going to stay with me forever”.

Last year’s report by Prof Alexis Jay found collective failures of the care system, police and local politicians in their response to hundreds of cases of child sexual exploitation over a 16-year period in Rotherham.

It was followed in February by a report by Louise Casey which found authorities in the South Yorkshire town were “in denial” about the shortcomings exposed by the Jay Report, prompting ministers to send commissioners in to take direct control of the council.

Prof Jay was among those attending the summit, along with Home Secretary Theresa May, Rotherham’s Labour MP Sarah Champion and Oxford West MP Nicola Blackwood.

In a statement to MPs, Mrs May said the situation in Rotherham “is only the tip of the iceberg” and “we need to confront these failures at a national level”.

She warned that the “culture of complete denial” uncovered by Prof Jay “persists today”.

The plans announced by the Government include joint official health, police and education inspections and a new child sexual abuse task force of experts in social work, law enforcement and health to support local areas.

The Department of Health has also published new guidance on the role of school nursing services in preventing child sexual exploitation and the Department for Education will announce the allocation of £3.8 million of funds under its Innovation Programme to child protection projects in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, Wigan, Rochdale, London and Durham.

Proposals for a crime of “wilful neglect” of children will be considered as part of a planned consultation on mandatory reporting of child abuse. The sanction would be introduced as an extension of the crime of wilful neglect of patients by care workers in this year’s Criminal Justice and Courts Act.

Asked how the threat of jailing social workers would encourage people to enter the profession, Mr Cameron said: “At the end of the day, if professionals fail, there need to be consequences. One of the problems in Rotherham is that there was failure after failure by social workers, by councillors, by council officials and, yes, by the police, and not enough consequences flowed from that.

“So it is very important the consequences do flow.”

Victims’ Commissioner Baroness Newlove said: “Every child deserves protection from this sickening abuse which has plagued our society for too long.

“It is despicable how children in Rotherham, Oxfordshire and elsewhere were treated with such prejudice that they were not believed by those who were there to keep them safe.

“That is why I welcome these measures as it is only right that professionals should be held accountable for their actions and abusers are exposed, punished and brought to justice.

“Above all, it is crucial that the survivors of these horrendous crimes get proper support now and for as long as they need it to allow them to live their lives in the best way they can.”

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