Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

Police forces and local authorities in England and in Wales must collect data on all cases of known or suspected child sexual exploitation and child sexual exploitation by networks. These data should be separated from other data sets, including data on child sexual abuse, and be disaggregated by the sex, ethnicity and disability of both the victim and perpetrator. This disaggregated data should be used by police forces to inform problem profiling and activities to disrupt and investigate offenders. Local authorities should take account of the disaggregated data when commissioning services for children. The UK government and the Welsh Government should take steps to ensure that these data are being collected and disaggregated in a consistent and accurate way by police forces and local authorities.

The government should introduce legislation to: change the definition of full-time education, and to bring any setting that is the pupil's primary place of education within the scope of the definition of a registered educational setting; and provide the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) with sufficient powers to examine the quality of child protection when it undertakes inspections of suspected unregistered institutions.

The government should amend the Sentencing Act 2020 to provide a mandatory aggravating factor in sentencing in the case of the commission of an offence under Part 1 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 relating to a child, where (1) the child was exploited, (2) 'exploitation' means the child was controlled, coerced, manipulated or deceived into sexual activity and (3) two or more persons were concerned in the exploitation.

As referenced in its Tackling Child Sexual Abuse Strategy, the government should publish an enhanced version of its Child Exploitation Disruption Toolkit as soon as possible. This Toolkit must: specify that the core element of the definition of child sexual exploitation is that a child was controlled, coerced, manipulated or deceived into sexual activity; include specific guidance on building effective problem profiles for child sexual exploitation and child sexual exploitation by networks, as differentiated from other forms of exploitation; specifically state the sources and types of data that agencies should use to build problem profiles; and indicate the minimum frequency at which problem profiles should be updated.

The Department for Education should ban the placement in semi-independent and independent settings of children aged 16 and 17 who have experienced, or are at heightened risk of experiencing, sexual exploitation. This should be implemented without delay.

As the Inquiry set out in its Interim Report, professional registration of the workforce in settings responsible for the care of vulnerable children complements regulation of institutions by a separate, independent regulator. The government has agreed in principle that professional regulation of staff in children's homes in England could provide an effective additional means of protecting children. It has indicated that it will be conducting an evidence-gathering exercise to inform further action. The Chair and Panel now recommend that the Ministry of Justice introduces arrangements for the professional registration of staff in roles responsible for the care of children in young offender institutions and secure training centres. The Interim Report recommendation already applies to staff working with children in secure children's homes.

The Department for Education should review and publish an updated version of its guidance on child sexual exploitation. The update should specify that the core element of the definition of child sexual exploitation is that a child was controlled, coerced, manipulated or deceived into sexual activity. It should also include detailed information on: the role of the internet in the perpetration of child sexual exploitation; and how to identify and respond to child sexual exploitation perpetrated by networks of offenders. The Welsh Government should also update its guidance on child sexual exploitation to provide detailed information on how to identify and respond to child sexual exploitation perpetrated by networks of offenders.

The Department for Education and the Welsh Government must ensure that their updated national guidance makes clear that signs that a child is being sexually exploited must never be treated as indications that a child is only 'at risk' of experiencing this harm. In line with this, local authorities in England and in Wales should ensure that their assessment of risk and harm enables them to accurately distinguish between: children who are at risk of experiencing sexual exploitation; children who are experiencing or have already experienced sexual exploitation; and children who have experienced sexual exploitation and are at risk of experiencing further abuse.

The Department for Education and the Welsh Government should: require all residential special schools to be inspected against the quality standards used to regulate children's homes in England and care homes in Wales; reintroduce a duty on boarding schools and residential special schools to inform the relevant inspectorate of allegations of child sexual abuse and other serious incidents, with professional or regulatory consequences for breach of this duty; if the recommendation above is implemented, residential special schools will automatically be subject to this duty; and introduce a system of licensing and registration of educational guardians for international students which requires Disclosure and Barring Service and barred list checks to be undertaken.

The Department for Education and the Welsh Government should: introduce a set of national standards for local authority designated officers in England and in Wales to promote consistency; and clarify in statutory guidance that the local authority designated officer can be contacted for informal advice as well as when a concern or allegation needs to be referred.

The Department for Education and the Welsh Government should: amend the Independent School Standards to include the requirements that there is an effective system of governance, based on three principles of openness to external scrutiny, transparency and honesty within the governance arrangements, and the ability of governors to have difficult conversations both internally and with those providing external scrutiny; amend the Independent School Standards to stipulate that the proprietor cannot be the designated safeguarding lead; and amend the current system of registration of independent schools to apply the same standards to registrants as those applying to open a free school or early years provision.

The Department for Education and the Welsh Government should: set nationally accredited standards and levels of safeguarding training in schools; make the highest level of safeguarding training mandatory for headteachers, designated safeguarding leads in England or designated safeguarding persons in Wales, designated safeguarding governors, or the proprietor or head of the proprietorial body; and undertake an urgent review in order to improve the provision and effectiveness of relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) for children with special educational needs and disabilities, both for children who are in mainstream settings and for those in special schools.

The Department for Education and the Welsh Government should: require schools to inform the relevant inspectorate when they have referred a member of staff to the Disclosure and Barring Service, the Teaching Regulation Agency or the Education Workforce Council; and include in the national standards for local authority designated officers a requirement that local authority designated officers should share information on referrals from schools with the relevant inspectorate.

The Department for Education should amend the Teachers' Disciplinary (England) Regulations 2012 to bring all teaching assistants, learning support staff and cover supervisors within the misconduct jurisdiction of the Teaching Regulation Agency. The Department for Education and the Welsh Government should amend Keeping Children Safe in Education and Keeping Learners Safe to: provide more detailed guidance as to the quality, nature and degree of supervision required for supervised volunteers working with children in schools; and make clear that Disclosure and Barring Service checks are free of charge for supervised volunteers, and should be obtained wherever practicable. The Department for Education and the Welsh Government should amend the regulations to provide that inclusion on the children's barred list automatically disqualifies the individual from being a governor or proprietor of any school. The Home Office should amend the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 so that proprietors and members of the proprietorial body and governors should be checked against the children's barred list.

The government should introduce legislation revising the Compensation Act 2006 to clarify that section 2 facilitates apologies or offers of treatment or other redress to victims and survivors of child sexual abuse by institutions that may be vicariously liable for the actions or omissions of other persons, including the perpetrators.

The Inquiry recommends that the UK government and the Welsh Government improve data collected by children's social care and criminal justice agencies concerning child sexual abuse and child sexual exploitation by the introduction of one single core data set covering both England and Wales. In order to facilitate this, these agencies should produce consistent and compatible data about child sexual abuse and child sexual exploitation which includes: the characteristics of victims and alleged perpetrators of child sexual abuse, including age, sex and ethnicity; factors that make victims more vulnerable to child sexual abuse or exploitation; and the settings and contexts in which child sexual abuse and child sexual exploitation occur. Data concerning child sexual abuse and child sexual exploitation should be compiled and published on a regular basis. This should be capable of being collated nationally as well as at regional or local levels.

The Inquiry recommends that the UK government establishes a Child Protection Authority for England and the Welsh Government establishes a Child Protection Authority for Wales. Each Authority's purpose should be to: improve practice in child protection; provide advice and make recommendations to government in relation to child protection policy and reform to improve child protection; and inspect institutions and settings as it considers necessary and proportionate. The Child Protection Authorities in England and in Wales should also monitor the implementation of the Inquiry's recommendations.

The Inquiry recommends that the UK government and the Welsh Government commission regular programmes of activity to increase public awareness about child sexual abuse and the action to take if child sexual abuse is happening or suspected in England and in Wales. The programmes should: challenge myths and stereotypes about child sexual abuse; make maximum use of different approaches including, but not limited to, public information campaigns, the use of positive role models and creative media, such as television drama; and be supported by continuous evaluation to measure their impact.

The Inquiry recommends that the UK government amends the Children Act 1989 so that, in any case where a court is satisfied that there is reasonable cause to believe that a child who is in the care of a local authority is experiencing or is at risk of experiencing significant harm, on an application by or for that child, the court may: prohibit a local authority from taking any act (or proposed act) which it otherwise would be entitled to take in exercising its parental responsibility for the child; or give directions for the purpose of determining a specific question which has arisen, or which may arise, in connection with any aspect of the local authority's exercise of parental responsibility for a child.

The Inquiry recommends (as originally stated in its Interim Report, dated April 2018) that the UK government introduces arrangements for the registration of staff working in care roles in children's homes, including secure children's homes. Registration should be with an independent body charged with setting and maintaining standards of training, conduct and continuing professional development, and with the power to enforce these through fitness to practise procedures.

The Inquiry recommends (as originally stated in its Sexual Abuse of Children in Custodial Institutions: 2009-2017 Investigation Report, dated February 2019) that the UK government introduces arrangements for the professional registration of staff in roles responsible for the care of children in young offender institutions and secure training centres.

The Inquiry recommends that the UK government enables any person engaging an individual to work or volunteer with children on a frequent basis to check whether or not they have been barred by the Disclosure and Barring Service from working with children. These arrangements should also apply where the role is undertaken on a supervised basis.

The Inquiry recommends that the UK government takes steps to improve compliance by regulated activity providers with their statutory duty to refer concerns about the suitability of individuals to work with children to the Disclosure and Barring Service, including: all relevant regulators and inspectorates include compliance with the statutory duty to refer to the Disclosure and Barring Service in their assessment of safeguarding procedures during inspections; the National Police Chiefs' Council works with relevant regulators and inspectorates to ensure that there are clear arrangements in place to refer breaches of the duty to refer to the police for criminal investigation; and an information-sharing protocol is put in place between the Disclosure and Barring Service and relevant regulators and inspectorates.

The Inquiry recommends (as originally stated in its Children Outside the United Kingdom Phase 2 Investigation Report, dated January 2020) that the UK government introduces legislation permitting the Disclosure and Barring Service to provide enhanced certificates with barred list checks to citizens and residents of England and Wales applying for: work or volunteering with UK-based organisations, where the recruitment decision is taken outside the UK; or work or volunteering with organisations based outside the UK, in each case where the work or volunteering would be a regulated activity if in England and Wales.

The Inquiry recommends that the UK government and Welsh Government introduce legislation which places certain individuals - 'mandated reporters' - under a statutory duty to report child sexual abuse where they: receive a disclosure of child sexual abuse from a child or perpetrator; or witness a child being sexually abused; or observe recognised indicators of child sexual abuse. The following persons should be designated 'mandated reporters': any person working in regulated activity in relation to children (under the Safeguarding and Vulnerable Groups Act 2006, as amended); any person working in a position of trust (as defined by the Sexual Offences Act 2003, as amended); and police officers. For the purposes of mandatory reporting, 'child sexual abuse' should be interpreted as any act that would be an offence under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 where the alleged victim is a child under the age of 18. Where the child is aged between 13 and under 16 years old, a report need not be made where the mandated reporter reasonably believes that: the relationship between the parties is consensual and not intimidatory, exploitative or coercive; and the child has not been harmed and is not at risk of being harmed; and there is no material difference in capacity or maturity between the parties engaged in the sexual activity concerned, and there is a difference in age of no more than three years. These exceptions should not, however, apply where the alleged perpetrator is in a position of trust within the meaning of the 2003 Act. Where the child is under the age of 13, a report must always be made. Reports should be made to either local authority children's social care or the police as soon as is practicable. It should be a criminal offence for mandated reporters to fail to report child sexual abuse where they: are in receipt of a disclosure of child sexual abuse from a child or perpetrator; or witness a child being sexually abused.

The Inquiry recommends (as originally stated in its Interim Report, dated April 2018) that the UK government commissions a joint inspection of compliance with the Victims' Code in relation to victims and survivors of child sexual abuse, to be undertaken by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, His Majesty's Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate and His Majesty's Inspectorate of Probation.

The Inquiry recommends that the UK government makes the necessary changes to legislation in order to ensure: the removal of the three-year limitation period for personal injury claims brought by victims and survivors of child sexual abuse in respect of their abuse; and the express protection of the right to a fair trial, with the burden falling on defendants to show that a fair trial is not possible. These provisions should apply whether or not the current three-year period has already started to run or has expired, except where claims have been: dismissed by a court; or settled by agreement. They should, however, only apply to claims brought by victims and survivors, not claims brought on behalf of victims and survivors' estates.

The Inquiry recommends that the UK government and the Welsh Government introduce a national guarantee that child victims of sexual abuse will be offered specialist and accredited therapeutic support. There should be sufficient supply of these services so that children in all parts of England and Wales can access support in a timely way. These services should be fully funded. Responsibility for commissioning these services should be given to local authorities. There must be no eligibility criteria for children to access these specialist therapeutic services other than having been a victim of child sexual abuse.

The Inquiry recommends that the UK government directs the Information Commissioner's Office to introduce a code of practice on retention of and access to records known to relate to child sexual abuse. The retention period for records known to relate to allegations or cases of child sexual abuse should be 75 years with appropriate review periods. The code should set out that institutions should have: retention policies that reflect the importance of such records to victims and survivors, and that they may take decades to seek to access such records; clear and accessible procedures for victims and survivors of child sexual abuse to access such records; policies, procedures and training for staff responding to requests to ensure that they recognise the long-term impact of child sexual abuse and engage with the applicant with empathy.

The Inquiry recommends that the UK government changes the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme to: include other forms of child sexual abuse, including online-facilitated sexual abuse; amend the rule on unspent convictions so that applicants with unspent convictions are not automatically excluded where offences are likely to be linked to the circumstances of their sexual abuse as a child; and increase the time limit for child sexual abuse applications so that applicants have seven years to apply from (a) the date the offence was reported to the police or (b) the age of 18, where the offence was reported whilst the victim was a child. In either circumstance, the claims officer's discretion to extend the time limit remains.

The Inquiry recommends that the UK government establishes a single redress scheme in England and Wales, taking into account devolved responsibilities. The detailed rules of, and funding for, this redress scheme should reflect the following core elements. Eligibility: Victims and survivors of child sexual abuse and exploitation that occurred in England and in Wales should be eligible to apply. Applicants must have experienced child sexual abuse and exploitation where there is a clear connection to State or non-State institutions in England and Wales. The scheme should be open to any victim of child sexual abuse that took place prior to its establishment. The scheme should deduct any previous award from any payment under the scheme. Applicants who have previously brought civil claims which have been rejected by the court should be excluded from applying to the scheme, save where their cases have been rejected due to limitation. Redress provided: The scheme should provide payments to eligible applicants through a two-tier system, based on a fixed flat-rate recognition payment, with the option to apply for a second-tier payment. Process: The application process must be accessible and straightforward, and be sensitive to the needs and vulnerabilities of victims and survivors of child sexual abuse. There should be special provisions to accelerate awards for older or terminally ill applicants. Duration: The scheme should run for five years. Funding: The scheme should be funded by central and local government, in accordance with devolved funding principles, with voluntary contributions sought from non-State institutions.

The Inquiry recommends (as originally stated in its The Internet Investigation Report, dated March 2020) that the UK government introduces legislation requiring providers of online services and social media platforms to implement more stringent age verification measures.