‘Abused children still not getting justice’.

Little progress has been made in bringing sex abusers to justice
or providing help for children who have been abused, according to a
study released this week.

Children living away from home are better protected than they were
in the mid-1990s but fewer than one in 50 sexual offences results
in a conviction, according to research funded by the Joseph
Rowntree Foundation.

The review, overseen by JRF deputy chair Sir William Utting, charts
what progress has been made since his People Like Us study in 1997.
It also reveals that disabled children are more likely to be abused
than others, especially in hospitals or psychiatric units.

The report warned there was still poor co-operation between health,
education, welfare and other support services. Practical advice on
how to protect disabled children was still inadequate.

“If the problem continues to go unchecked there will be an
inexorable rise in children subjected to sexual abuse,” says the
report.

Private foster care is of “particular concern”, with “unknown
numbers of children” remaining at risk because of the government’s
refusal to register private foster carers. The measures on private
foster carers in the Children Bill might be ineffective, says the
report.

Report from www.jrf.org.uk