Health Minister sets out action plan to tackle child sexual exploitation
By News Northern Ireland, , ,

Northern Ireland Health Minister, Simon Hamilton, has announced details of a Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) Implementation Plan, setting out the actions to be progressed in response to those recommendations for Health and Social Care contained in Professor Kathleen Marshall’s CSE Inquiry Report.

Professor Kathleen Marshall’s report, published on 18 November 2014, contained 17 key recommendations and 60 supporting recommendations. In February this year, former Minister Wells announced that he had accepted all of the recommendations.

A Health and Social Care CSE Response Team, established to consider those recommendations for Health and Social Care (HSC), has drawn up a costed Implementation Plan, setting out the actions to be taken forward. The plan identifies who will lead on each recommendation, the work to be undertaken and the timescales for completion.

The Minister confirmed that the work will be driven forward on a phased basis over three years. It will be the responsibility of an Implementation Group, led by the former Director of Children’s Services of the Belfast HSC Trust, Bernie McNally, OBE.

The Minister said: “The Plan demonstrates that the majority of actions will be undertaken during the first year of implementation. Work has started on all recommendations and some are already complete.”

“Professor Marshall’s report also makes a number of recommendations requiring actions to be progressed jointly with the Departments of Justice and Education. This work has also started and is being overseen by senior officials in all three departments. There are other recommendations in the report for the Departments of Justice and Education and their related bodies, including schools, the PSNI and the PPS and for the SBNI and RQIA.

“I will continue to work with my Ministerial colleagues to ensure that all of the Marshall recommendations are implemented as quickly and as fully as possible. Our overall aim is to keep children and young people across Northern Ireland safe from sexual exploitation. Implementation of the Marshall recommendations will assist with our efforts to achieve that aim.”

The Implementation Plan is published here.