The campaign for the introduction of Mandatory Reporting (failure to report child abuse by those in the child care area either witnessed or reasonably suspected should be a criminal offence) is several years old, and has been brought in by a Tory Party which is approaching an election with polls not looking favourable for them. The Home Office, who are responsible for bringing such legislation into force have been put under pressure by, amongst others, Professor Jay herself, the Chair of IICSA (Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse). So is this piece of legislation worthwhile, and what is more to the point, will it help to keep children safe?
Talk TV decided to run the story as part of their mid morning show under the stewardship of Julia Hartley-Brewer, who, like many of the station’s presenters adopted a concerned, and passionate approach to the subject matter. I am critical of the legislation, as the interview reveals
To read more about my campaign for Mandatory Reporting, read my campaign page. The campaign arose from my experience of abuse disclosed to supervising care workers by boys in care who had been seriously abused in Children’s Homes. They would be dismissed as liars, and the abusive residential care worker would carry on his crime undetected. More boys would be abused, threatened, and damaged for life. If only the supervisor had taken the complaint seriously, countless other boys could have been saved.
I was even told by investigating police officers that they asked the Crown Prosecution Service to press charges against the Head Warden for negligence, so convinced were they that he had ignored complaints of abuse and covered it up. There being no such crime as negligence, their pleas fell on deaf ears. There is still no crime of negligence, only corporate manslaughter, which does not apply, not only because there is no corporation, but also no death.
I was intrigued by a story from Penn State University in America where the baseball coach witnessed a colleague abusing a boy in the showers after a game, and did nothing about it. Years later, it was impossible to prosecute the abuser due to their Statute of Limitations, so an attempt was made to prosecute the ignorant witness. The scandal was so massive that the American Football University team was banned from playing in their league. It occurred to me that there was no such law in the United Kingdom, so I joined forces with a campaigner, and Mandatory Reporting was born. That was in the mid-2000’s, yet it is only now coming into law.
So will the law work?
- To be fair IICSA recommended the introduction of a law which would only criminalise a cover up if the person working with children knew that abuse had taken place rather than know or reasonably suspect
- The purpose of the law is to encourage more disclosures, even if they do not result in a criminal offence. The deterrent effect of not reporting rather than punishing someone when it is too late is the goal. The reason it has taken so long to bring the law into effect lies in strong lobbying by care professionals and the likes of the NSPCC, somewhat surprisingly.
- While there is an argument that to punish someone for covering, certain knowledge should be required, rarely do children in fear directly make a clear complaint of abuse. They often hint at something inappropriate happening and fall short of specific detail, not only through embarrassment but also because they are often threatened by their abuser.
- A gauge of the effectiveness of the law will lie in an increased number of complaints being investigated rather than headline news of care workers being prosecuted.
- There appears to be nothing in the Act to oblige the care worker to report to an independent body such as the LADO (Local Authority Designated Officer), presumably because it is thought that such detail should be in current practice guidelines rather than legislation. It is, however, important that junior members of staff are not blocked by their superiors from passing on complaints for fear of reprisals, and loss of “brand” reputation.
I attended a meeting in Parliament, hosted by Professor Jay, and the Survivor’s Trust, the purpose of which was to ask why the reaction to the IICSA report on the part of the Home Office had been so lackluster. It was attended by James Cleverly, the Home Secretary himself, in person. There was no doubt that our complaints had not fallen on deaf ears and that some action was important, hence this announcement.
The Criminal Justice Bill has, however, some way to go before it receives the Royal Assent, so let us hope that Mandatory Reporting survives. We were hearing that the government wanted to kick the can down the road, rather than tackle difficult legislation before the election, so one must assume that this recent development is an effort to earn brownie points. Personally, I have my doubts whether this watered down version will have the desired effect upon the safety of children, but some version of the law is better than nothing. We will see………………watch this space…………….
by Peter Garsden, Solicitor. For help on any aspect of this article, or, indeed, any aspect of abuse cases, please contact us by filling in our form.
