BASW England response to MPs report on Rotherham

A report issued today by MPs warns that child sex abuse is widespread in England, and states that Rotherham Council and Ofsted both failed the victims in this town.

BASW England Manager Maris Stratulis stated:

"Safeguarding children is incredibly complex work and social workers and other professionals require the time and resources to undertake direct work with children and young people. Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) is a national issue – tragically what has happened in Rotherham is not an isolated case. Therefore BASW supports the call for greater accountability and for organisations to review their safeguarding procedures.

"Any review process should involve engagement with children, young people, social workers and other professionals in order to strengthen our responses to organised abuse and ensure the better coordination of services.

"However, in coming to grips with the problem of CSE we cannot ignore the elephant in the room and that is the drastic cuts that are being made to public services, including those designed to support vulnerable children and families. Effective services need to be properly budgeted for and resourced as opposed to being run on a piecemeal basis, which sadly will yield the same results again in the future.

"Ann Coffey’s recent report Real Voices: Child Sexual Exploitation in Greater Manchester provides a constructive framework for MPs to follow. The report demonstrates how government agencies, services, communities and individuals all collectively have a role to develop a more effective response to this serious challenge by adopting a young person-centred approach.

"BASW England itself has been calling for gaps in policy in this area to be addressed such as the references to organised abuse being reinstated in statutory guidance for all agencies involved in safeguarding children. The BASW England Children and Families Reference Group intend to do further work on this very important area of practice by developing guidance to support social workers dealing with both historical abuse and organised abuse.”