Whether you’re a teacher, parent, social worker, health professional or politician, everyone agrees that our first and most important duty is to keep children safe from harm. In recent years, horrific revelations about child sexual exploitation have shocked us all. We know that in every community, every school and every classroom there are children at risk.
It has now been more than four years since Jimmy Savile’s crimes first came to light, and more than three years since the establishment of the Jay Inquiry into child sexual abuse in Rotherham. Every day it seems there are new reports of abuse past and present – the disease has spread even into our national game of football.
As the beleaguered Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse finally gets underway we are confronted with another shock wave. Former child migrants sent to Australia and elsewhere after the Second World War say they experienced “unacceptable depravity”.
No one now pretends child sexual abuse is confined to the history books. Chief constable Simon Bailey, the UK’s lead officer on child protection, recently told the BBC that the police has reached “saturation point”.
Forces are simply overwhelmed by the volume of reports. He has called, controversially, for a shift in focus towards prevention and rehabilitation, rather than relying on arresting and imprisoning offenders after the fact.
At a time of continuing cuts to public services, with no end to austerity in sight, we do have to think seriously about our use of resources. We all know that prevention is better than cure – better for the child, the family and the community, and better for the public purse. But it’s not easy to put the theory into practice.
Alongside the police, children’s social care services are experiencing a huge increase in demand. The number of children on child protection plans increased by almost 30 per cent between 2010/11 and 2015/16, while total local authority expenditure dropped more than 21 per cent in the same period.
The reality is that public services can’t be expected to do more and more work with less and less resource. In the current financial climate, supporting more children on child protection plans means providing fewer universal or preventative services for families. That may mean children are missing out on early intervention and low-level protection, only to need more significant (and costly) help later on.
Over the last few years, what’s certainly improved is our awareness of the scale of the safeguarding challenge. We’re also starting to understand the impact on services. It’s important to give politicians credit where it’s due – from the prime minister down, it’s hard to accuse anyone of being in denial.
The next task then is to make sure that worthy rhetoric translates into real change on the ground, so that we act as early as possible to keep children safe.
In February, the government published a new package of measures to tackle child sexual abuse, worth £40 million. This includes a new Centre of Expertise, an extra £20 million for the National Crime Agency to tackle only child sexual exploitation, and £2.2 million to protect children at risk of trafficking. It has established a new national missing person register and, importantly, launched the next phase of its “Together, we can tackle child abuse” campaign, which is designed to educate people about what to do if they are concerned that a child may be at risk.
What is clear is that to be effective, our safeguarding strategy must recognise the role of all carers and professionals who come into contact with children. We cannot rely solely on the police and social services to keep children safe. And that’s not just a question of resources. It’s about intervening early, raising the alarm, and better still, preventing abuse in the first place. As parents, teachers and professionals, we must remember: safeguarding is everyone’s business.
- Debbie Moss is head of policy at the National Children’s Bureau. Visit www.ncb.org.uk