Ministers pledge action as scale of child abuse scandal emerges

Deputy Children’s Commissioner Sue Berelowitz said she had been “shocked” by the scale of the abuse she is uncovering through her ongoing investigation, which was ordered after the jailing of a sex abuse ring which preyed on vulnerable girls in Rochdale.

The inquiry has highlighted evidence that children in care are particularly vulnerable to child sex exploitation, with some residential homes being specifically targeted by abusers.

Ms Berelowitz said her research found perpetrators come from all ethnic groups, as do their victims, who are as young as 11 and are largely, but not exclusively, girls.

She said of the abuse: “It is of a violent and sadistic nature.

“I’ve been in the children’s services field for a very long time, and I have never come across the scale of violence and sadism that I’m encountering now. The stories that children and young people tell us are truly horrific.

“I think it’s quite right and proper that the Government is paying special attention to this group of children as the state is their parent and therefore we have a special duty of care to children who are under care orders of one kind or another.”

Earlier this year the Yorkshire Post revealed thousands of children are going missing from care homes every year in this region alone.

South Yorkshire Police said local councils generally have no idea of the scale of the problem within their own systems.

Children’s Minister Tim Loughton said a new system of measuring how many children go missing each year will now be introduced, while more would be done to ensure that children’s homes are properly protected and located.

Ministers also want to see the quality and effectiveness of children’s homes improving by making Ofsted inspections tougher.

Mr Loughton said the Government wanted to tackle the “out of sight, out of mind culture” that allows abuse to go on.

“We are talking about a very vulnerable group of children. Children who come into care should expect a degree of safety in the care of the state.

“Children who come from very traumatic backgrounds, they may have been abused or neglected for a long time and need to know they are safe in the form of care the state is providing for them.

“These reports lift the lid on very serious weaknesses in the system.

“There are good children’s homes and excellent care workers but it is clear that far too many of the most vulnerable children in society are being exposed to harm and danger.

“It is completely unacceptable that existing rules are simply being ignored and that frankly, some local authorities and homes are letting down children by failing to act as a proper parent.

“We are setting out urgent, immediate steps to protect children in care and address all the weaknesses. These are big changes to a system which has been letting down too many children.”

Children’s charity Barnardo’s said almost a third of the 3,500 young people it helped through its sexual exploitation services in recent years were in the care of their local authority.

Chief executive Anne Marie Carrie said: “We know that children from all walks of life are at risk of child sexual exploitation, but those who are already vulnerable, such as children in care, are especially so.

“We need to be sure that by clustering vulnerable children together in certain areas of England we are not putting already desperate children in even greater danger of being preyed upon.”