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It is a great honour for me to be here today to share my experience of child protection in the UK.
I have been a member of the British Parliament for five years. I represent an industrial town called Rotherham which is in Yorkshire, the North East of England. It is a small town. Historically, employment was in steel production and coal mining. Both of those industries are now greatly reduced, leaving large scale unemployment and poverty.
Read MoreSarah Champion MP has welcomed the Home Secretary’s commitment to preventing and disrupting child abuse, including online. In a speech at Weston House, the base of operations for Childline, the Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, announced a number of measures, including new powers for the police to tackle online abuse and grooming and additional funding for police and the National Crime Agency. Mr Javid outlined the scale of the problem with 15% girls and 5% boys experiencing some form of sexual abuse before the age of 16. He went on to state that keeping children safe was his priority regardless of cultural or political sensitivities.
Read MoreA cross party group of MPs have welcomed assurances from the Home Secretary, Sajid Javid MP, that confronting Child Sexual Exploitation remains amongst the Government’s highest priorities.
Read MoreSarah Champion MP, Member of Parliament for Rotherham, has welcomed the announcement that full authority is planned to be returned to Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council. The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, James Brokenshire, has issued new directions to RMBC. The directions will, following consultation, lead to the withdrawal of the team of commissioners who have over seen the Council since 2015 and follows a recent recommendation from the commissioners themselves that they be withdrawn. The government intervention in Rotherham began in 2015, following severe criticism of the Council in the Jay and Casey reports.
Read MoreI really welcome the Government’s draft guidelines for relationship and sex education. From my research with teachers, children’s charities, academics, parents and survivors of childhood abuse, relationship education at primary school is the one thing everyone agreed would make the biggest difference to prevent child abuse.
Read MoreI welcome this internal review into the Home Office into child sexual exploitation in Rotherham.
It is clear that the Home Office knew about child sexual exploitation in Rotherham from 2002. The report also highlights the knowledge of the Local Authority and South Yorkshire Police of the abuse. Why, when so many in authority knew the scale and severity of this crime did it take until 2014, with the publication of the Jay report, for a large scale investigation to occur? How many lives could have been protected if swift action had been taken a decade before?
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