Child abuse inquiry calls for mandatory reporting in its final report

Embed from Getty Images

The final report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse has come out in favour of the mandatory reporting of allegations of sexual abuse in institutions for children.

BBC News quotes the chair of the inquiry, Professor Alexis Jay:

"We heard time and time again how allegations of abuse were ignored, victims were blamed and institutions prioritised their reputations over the protection of children..

"We cannot simply file it away and consider it a historical aberration when so much of what we learned suggests it is an ever growing problem exacerbated by current and future threat of the internet."

The 20 recommendations made by the inquiry also include:

• the creation of a cabinet-level minister for children; 
• a ban on the use of pain compliance techniques on children in custodial institutions; and 
• a requirement for registration of care staff in residential care and staff in young offender institutions and secure training centres.

You may recall that this is the inquiry described by Boris Johnson as money "spaffed up the wall".

Which leads me to recommend Richard Beard's Sad Little Men: Private Schools and the Ruin of England, a study of what being sent away to boarding school at a tender age does to the ruling class.