At the Marie Collins Foundation, we prioritise the recovery of victims from Technology-Assisted Child Sexual Abuse (TACSA). We also strongly believe in the need drive forward a prevention-focus for identifying and responding to Child Sexual Abuse (CSA).
MCF have been waiting eagerly for the follow-up details from the Home Office on the proposals on implementing IICSA, as well as other areas where the identification, response and prevention of CSA will be prioritised. We agree with the safeguarding minister’s remarks this week (8th April 2025) that there are no hierarchies of abuse, and that frontline response is vital.
We are therefore pleased to see several strong initiatives that the Home Office plans to take forward, including the creation of a Child Protection Authority. This will be vital to achieve a coordinated and strategic country-level response to CSA. We welcome the recognition and extension of the important work of the national Child Safeguarding Review Panel to direct and equip practitioners with current data and best practice, improving preventative and early intervention measures in child safeguarding practice.
The commissioned review of intrafamilial abuse is an important step in highlighting the significance of the family home and familial relationships on the occurrence of CSA. We urge the government to use this gathered data to increase public awareness of the everyday reality of abuse occurring within and through families, by parents, caregivers and siblings.
We commend the government for heeding the input to recent consultations on removal of the statute of limitations for CSA civil claims and amendments to the law on apologies to foster meaningful and genuine apologies from institutions where abuse was known to have occurred. The confirmation that funding will be doubled for services supporting victims/survivors demonstrates awareness of the great need to attend to the long-term impacts of CSA. These measures are victim/survivor-focused, which we hope will encourage an important shift towards consideration of victim/survivor needs and support in the aftermath of CSA. This is an area we are passionate about. At MCF, we are dedicated to ensuring that responses to victims/survivors do no further harm and offer specific and expert support for the recovery journey.
It will be important to monitor the implementation of the steps committed to by the minister this week. While we are pleased to see that a Keeping Children Safe ministerial board will be created, we would also like to ensure that this initiative includes a specific focus on addressing CSA. A cross-cutting and cross-departmental approach to embedding a prevention framework within all arenas where identification, response and prevention of CSA is pivotal. CSA is a complex and pervasive societal problem which cannot be solved by one government department or agency alone. It is imperative that health, justice, social care and education work in partnership to deliver a successful prevention approach, including agile information-sharing, to prevent and detect the occurrence of CSA at the earliest opportunity. This will be strengthened by raising public awareness on the extent of CSA and educating all sectors of society on prevalence, signs and indicators of abuse and pathways to timely reporting of suspected or confirmed CSA. This will enhance a “prevention-friendly” environment, as highlighted in our jointly produced Closer to home (November 2024). Our report highlighted five key steps which can catalyse a prevention approach within government strategy.
We are pleased to see the safeguarding minister build on the Home Secretary’s commitments outlined in January this year, including addressing Child Sexual Abuse Material generated through the deployment of Artificial Intelligence. This is an important area of contemporary risk to children. We are particularly pleased to see that grooming will become an aggravating factor for sentencing purposes. Crucially, this recognises the dominance of grooming behaviours within the abuse process, both online and offline, to secure the silence and compliance of the victim.
To truly address CSA from a preventative lens, we urgently need more up-to-date data. We urge the government to commit to a new and overdue national survey on child maltreatment. We can only address CSA when we recognise the full extent of the problem. While we welcome many of the activities announced by the safeguarding minister, we note the absence of efforts to prevent potential offenders before they offend. We encourage the government to explore current intervention, interruption and deterrence efforts and to extend these further. Evidence shows their effectiveness in diverting offenders before they commit an offence of CSA.
As we outlined in our report, an estimated 500,000 children experience CSA annually, but this is only the tip of the iceberg. Many more children who are victims of CSA go undetected. We are therefore delighted to see the minister’s outline steps to implement many of the IICSA recommendations, but it will be important to monitor the details and delivery of these initiatives announced by the Home Office earlier this week.