News

At the Marie Collins Foundation, we have observed with concern the public discourse about victims of grooming and Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) in recent weeks. It has been dispiriting to see a lack of focus on the need to help victims to heal and recover from these experiences. There has also been an absence of awareness and reference to the online world with Technology-Assisted Child Sexual Abuse (TACSA) being a key aspect of grooming gang activity. 

The Marie Collins Foundation works tirelessly to advocate for victims of TACSA and to improve their recovery.  Firstly, we believe that government must, as a starting point, direct activity at addressing all forms of CSA, including grooming, group-based offending and TACSA.  Secondly, the Marie Collins Foundation recognises there is also a time for responsive government action. As such, we welcome the recent announcement by the Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, to respond to previous inadequacies on grooming and CSA within the UK. Actions speak louder than words, so we are glad to see the unhelpful rhetoric of recent weeks being shifted into measurable activity and change. 

After exploring the detail of the Home Office’s package of response, we particularly note and are encouraged by:

• The opportunity for victims and survivors to have their cases independently reviewed.
• A rapid and immediate audit, to drive the evidence of scale, nature and profile of group-based CSA offending.
• The centrality of victims within the audit process. It is vital that victims’ experiences are heard and are reflected in actions for change.
• The commitment to deliver by Easter 2025 the timeframe for implementing the recommendations of IICSA.
• A reiteration of the Home Secretary’s Commitment to grooming being included as an aggravating factor for sentencing purposes.
• Experienced personnel being chosen to facilitate the delivery of this package of measures (Baroness Casey and Tom Crowther KC).
• Government funding to bolster the newly announced efforts.

While we welcome the above, we have some reservations around the lack of reference to TACSA anywhere in the Home Secretary’s press release or public statement. These locally-led inquiries should be expedited comprehensively, but we recommend that the area technology is included for examination within the locally-led grooming and group-based offending inquiries. Widespread societal use of technology is likely to have become fully embedded within strategic grooming and exploitation strategies. Any inquiry must explore this and address it fully. The Marie Collins Foundation has TACSA-specific expertise that would be extremely valuable in these efforts. Furthermore, the evidence gained from the rapid national audit must be put to good use in dismantling grooming and sexual exploitation gangs operating across the UK. This learning must not gather dust on a shelf. We look forward to seeing how the Home Secretary will translate this knowledge into positive and robust action.

While the Marie Collins Foundation would have liked to see the government pressing ahead in the implementation of existing recommendations and learning from previous inquiries, (IICSA, Rotherham, Telford and others), we recognise the Home Secretary’s announcement is a meaningful attempt to address historic and ongoing grooming issues through some new measures. Overall, we welcome this much-needed response and commitment from the government.  Victims of all forms of abuse have waited too long for serious action to address what they have endured. Now is their time. We stand with them.