People working with children in England will be put under a new legal duty to report “signs or suspicions” of sexual abuse, the Home Secretary has said. The Government is expected to set out details of plans in the coming days to tackle grooming gangs and better protect children.
It comes after the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse last year described sexual abuse of children as an “epidemic that leaves tens of thousands of victims in its poisonous wake”. The seven-year inquiry into institutional failings in England and Wales concluded that people in positions of trust should be compelled by law to report child sexual abuse.
Writing in the Mail on Sunday, Suella Braverman said that the inquiry “recommended that the Government should introduce a mandatory duty for professionals with safeguarding responsibilities to report any signs or suspicions of such abuse”.
“Had this duty been in place already, countless children would have been better protected against grooming gangs and against sexual abusers more widely. That is why I have committed to introduce mandatory reporting across the whole of England.”
Mandatory reporting is a legal requirement to report knowledge or suspicions of a crime. Writing in the paper, Ms Braverman said: “Our safeguarding professionals, such as teachers and social workers, are valued public servants who play a vital role in protecting and nurturing future generations.
“I know the overwhelming majority of them, along with the public, consider it a duty on themselves and their colleagues to report any indication of the sexual abuse of a child.”
But she says the duty must be strengthened in legislation to “ensure those who fail to do so face the full force of the law”.
“Some crimes, if left unpunished, create such a burning sense of injustice among the public that they singe the fabric of our social contract. When the most vulnerable people cannot rely on protection from those entrusted to safeguard them, cannot rely on the police to defend them, and cannot rely on the courts to deliver them justice, then the legitimacy of our democratic institutions is called into question. Grooming gangs and child sexual abuse are examples of that phenomenon.”
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The Home Secretary said that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak would set out further measures to tackle grooming gangs on Monday.
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