Child Sex Abuse Inquiry Head to Reveal Schedule for 2017

Sky News
December 16, 2016

http://news.sky.com/story/child-sex-abuse-inquiry-head-to-reveal-schedule-for-2017-10697654

Professor Alexis Jay became the latest chair of the inquiry in August

The head of the troubled child abuse inquiry will attempt to get the process back on track later when she outlines its schedule for the coming year.

Professor Alexis Jay, who is the inquiry's fourth chairwoman in only two years, will try to draw a line under a year that has seen a victims' group withdraw and several lawyers leave.

A leading barrister told Sky News the inquiry has been "so badly managed from the beginning".

Michael Mansfield QC said: "It is a rather dismal exercise and I am not surprised that groups of survivors have had enough because they've been waiting in some cases 20-25 years to see justice in their cases."

Shirley Oaks Survivors Association produced its own report on abuse

On Thursday the Shirley Oaks Survivors Association (SOSA), which branded the inquiry an "unpalatable circus" when it withdrew last month, published its own report into abuse at a children's home in Lambeth that closed in 1983.

Lambeth Council has accepted liability for abuse carried out at Shirley Oaks in Croydon, south London, and said former residents would be paid compensation, regardless of whether they were victims of abuse.

The report by Raymond Stevenson, founder of SOSA, claims to have identified 60 alleged paedophiles and accused some police officers of corruption.

Its investigation included hundreds of pages of testimony taken from children who were abused in what was Britain's biggest care home.

SOSA claims 48 children who died in Lambeth Council's care while the home was open had all been sexually abused, and more than 20 had died later as a result of being abused.

It comes as a group of MPs warned children are being left "at risk of harm" because of the Government's failure to develop a "credible" plan to improve protection services.

The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee said progress had been "too slow" in the five-and-a-half years since the Munro report, which called for a major overhaul of the system.

In a new report, the cross-party committee accused ministers of "complacency" on the issue and called on the Department for Education to publish detailed plans to transform child protection services.

A Department for Education spokesman said: "We have a relentless focus on keeping children safe, and it is wrong to suggest otherwise.

"This year we published plans to deliver excellent children's social care across the country, and through new legislation are further strengthening protection for the most vulnerable children and transforming the support available to them.

"We take tough action where councils are failing children, stepping in to make sure improvement plans are taken forward as a matter of urgency."