Earlier this month Suella Braverman announced that the government would be introducing mandatory reporting of sexual abuse of children by professionals.
This is something that many safeguarding professionals have been advocating for some time now. Yet many people were also very concerned about her focus on grooming gangs and her comment that these are invariably “groups of men, almost all British-Pakistani who hold cultural attitudes completely incompatible with British values.”
“It is a great pity that the public statements by Sunak and Braverman had such a narrow focus.”
Rishi Sunak supported her in this, saying that “political correctness” would not stop the Government acting and highlighted cases of sexual abuse by gangs that involved British Pakistani men.
It is a great pity that the public statements by Sunak and Braverman had such a narrow focus, something that seems intended to attract the attention and support of voters who are keen to associate criminality with particular racial groups.
It is correct to say that some cases of grooming such as in Rochdale did demonstrate that agencies had been reluctant to act against British Pakistani men due to fears they would be seen as racist. However, as Peter Wanless, head of the NSPCC, rightly said: “It’s also vital we remember that any child can be a victim of child sexual exploitation and adult perpetrators do not just come from one background.”
“It is a mistake to focus attention just on grooming gangs.”
The fear is that popularising the idea that sexual abuse occurs only in one part of society will both demonise certain groups and also makes the wider public less vigilant about possible risks of sexual abuse not mentioned by these statements.
A Home Office report in December 2020 noted that, in fact: “Research has found that group-based child exploitation offenders are most commonly white”, showing that Braverman’s own department does not agree with her assessment of the problem.
Even more broadly, it is a mistake to focus attention just on grooming gangs given that there are very many cases of sexual abuse and exploitation that do not fall into this pattern. Research by the NSPCC shows that 90 per cent of the young people who had been sexually abused knew the perpetrator, demonstrating the sad fact that abuse also occurs in families, schools, religious organisations, and indeed throughout society.
“It is encouraging that the Home Office written statement is much more considered and objective.”
That the statements on mandatory reporting were focused on politics rather than child protection is borne out by the formal government statement on mandatory reporting by the Home Office on April 3.
This is much more measured, and does not mention particular racial characteristics or indeed grooming gangs at all, instead simply stating the government is “committed” to mandatory reporting because it was: “one of the key recommendations made by the IICSA [Independent Investigation into Child Sexual Abuse] report to crack down on child sexual abuse and address the systemic under-reporting of this crime.”
Furthermore, the statement is not announcing the introduction of mandatory reporting immediately but is calling for a consultation to look at mandatory reporting with:
“the first step…a call for evidence…the start of extensive consultation to ensure everyone’s views are represented ahead of implementing the new duty.”
It is very encouraging that the formal written statement made by the Home Office is much more considered and objective than the public statements of politicians. Yet the sad fact is that most people will not read this, while they will remember the inflammatory and inaccurate rhetoric.
“We hope the consultation will push government leaders to focus on this crucial issue.”
Furthermore, none of these statements explains how mandatory reporting will be effectively supported. This month Rishi Sunak has been criticised for calling for more maths teaching despite a lack of maths teachers. In the same way, the government calling for mandatory reporting (which IICSA suggests might increase the number of safeguarding referrals six-fold) entirely ignores the fact that, after years of funding cuts, social services would be hard pressed to cope with such an increase in the number of referrals.
It is hoped that in launching this consultation government leaders will be pushed to focus on this crucial issue rather than attempting to score political points.