The work on securing an independent inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in Oldham has been in development, and yesterday it took a significant step forward with the support of the Home Office.
The focus throughout must be the experience of victims and survivors, and in making perpetrators answer for the abuse and exploitation they carried out.
Over the past two weeks I have met with some of the survivors and campaigners who worked tirelessly to secure and deliver the Telford Inquiry, and local survivors in Oldham who I have been supporting for some time as a constituency MP.
Victims and survivors must be central to any new inquiry. It must be open to all victims to come forward, to review cases across all time periods, and have terms of reference and a lead which carries the trust and confidence of those previously let down by the system when they went for help. No one can feel excluded from this process.
This weeks announcement begins that process with the commitment of new funding towards nationally backed, locally led inquiries, and the involvement of Tom Crowther KC who led the Telford Inquiry to support five other local areas, including Oldham.
Further, it will do what the Conservative government failed to do and put in place a clear timetable to implement the recommendations of the 7-year IICSA report (Alexis Jay Inquiry) and escalate a report on the HMIC inspection of police responses to group based Child Sexual Exploitation. It will require a similar audit of child protection referrals by local authorities. To deliver the justice too often denied, it will provide new support to drive up the reporting of historic and ongoing grooming gang offences and, importantly, strengthen the victims right to review for cases never taken forward either by the police or the CPS.
VICTIM AND SURVIVOR FOCUSED
Going forward it is important that within the process professional witnesses must be required to give evidence, tackling the unacceptable examples where key professionals refuse to engage with the process. The proposed Duty of Candour is being brought in via the Hillsborough Law to address this gap more generally. The process must also ensure that victims and survivors are properly supported with a single point of contact and advocates so they are never left to navigate the inquiry alone. It must also follow the evidence, including where that crosses local authority and policing boundaries. Vitally justice cannot wait; if there are reasonable lines of enquiry to progress cases, they must be taken now, either through Operation Sherwood or a standalone investigation.
I know some have questioned the value of a further local review, but I and many victims and survivors believe this to be important.
PREVIOUS INSPECTIONS AND REVIEWS
Oldham has been subject to inspections and reviews in the past, and they have gone some way to highlighting operational issues which fell short of giving victims the support and justice they are due, and the accountability perpetrators must face.
The Assurance Review was thorough within its terms of reference, but as it was dealing with specific complaints being made online, it was not designed to be an open route for a wider range of cases and time periods to be considered.
A broader time period being covered going forward would draw out the changing political leadership in the borough at the time, with a crucial period from 2000-2003 and 2008-2011 being in Liberal Democrat control (latterly in coalition with the Conservatives), and specialist CSE Messenger programme being introduced in middle of that period by the then Labour authority.
While the Assurance Review did confirm the strength and determination of political leadership after that period, it is right that the last two decades are reviewed in their entirety, led by the evidence. This would also ensure that the period of the most locally high-profile case of grooming gangs in Rochdale, with the lead abuser being an Oldham resident (and former employee of the local authority from
1988-2006, as reported by the press during the court case in 2012), would be included alongside any others.
The work of the Assurance Review was important, and those involved provided a vital insight which allowed a deeper understanding of the issue and the approach being taken at that time. I supported that review, and so did the Conservative government at the time. In my response in Parliament, I addressed head on the issues it raised, where I also called for accountability for professionals found to have deliberately failed victims and survivors.
SPEAKING UP
Over a decade ago I wrote of the need to raise awareness of this and other types of abuse to increase reporting and protection of victims. This stands today and shows the openness in which this issue has been discussed in Oldham – it is worth reading along with other articles from that time:
https://oldhamcouncil.wordpress.com/2014/09/17/ child-sexual-exploitation-its-everyones-business/
I do want to acknowledge that the previous review into Oldham was in large part significantly undermined by false and damaging accusations of cover up and conspiracy, and the refusal of its key protagonist, Raja Miah, to provide any comprehensive evidence to the process, or since. I also want to give assurance to constituents that the serious complaints on safeguarding failures at the Collective Spirit Free School, established by Mr Miah, have not been lost, regardless of his repeated claims that the testimonies of staff and former pupils were untrue despite at least one case of serious sexual abuse being confirmed by a Safeguarding Partnership review. I also take the word of whistle-blowers seriously. These wider allegations have still not been subject to an in-depth review that I and others deem necessary in the public interest: https://jimmcmahon.co.uk/…/11/02/oldhams-toxic-politics-3/
The motivation of Mr Miah and his campaign of harassment, which has continued for many years, has always been driven from the closure of his failed free schools. That can not allow to either withdraw from holding him to account, or importantly, not to address fully the very real issue of child protection in our borough, simply because it has routinely been used as a political attack. None of that matters more than securing justice for victims and survivors.
The focus moving forward must be on ensuring that the next stage of the review is driven by and delivered for victims and survivors.
Any review, inspection or inquiry that gives victims and survivors a voice has my full support.
SEEKING SUPPORT
If you have any concerns about child sexual exploitation you can report them and find resources at https://www.itsnotokay.co.uk/
If you have concerns about the welfare of children you can report them to Oldham Council Social Services on 0161 770 7777 or by email at child.mash@oldham.gov.uk
Local charity KOGS (Keeping Our Girls Safe) provides one to one support and can be found at https://kogs.org.uk
Jim McMahon OBE MP 