All-Party Parliamentary Groups - Can adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse access justice and support?

The All-Party Parliamentary Group Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse works to highlight the needs of survivors across the country, and to give a voice to their concerns in Parliament.

They published a report earlier this year: Can adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse access justice and support?

Part One: Achieving quality information and support for survivors, can be found here:

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5c8faf788d97401af928638c/t/5cd05b45eb3931052c31b479/1557158727790/Achieving+quality+information+and+support+for+survivors.pdf

We were pleased to assist the APPG with its investigation, as we are concerned that survivors have to navigate a complex set of support systems to gain access to justice. Much of what is available is patchy and in our experience differs in quality. The system is very often hampered by a lack of knowledge, on the part of many whose task it is to advise survivors of their legal rights and entitlement to services.

Survivors are entitled to be treated as equal citizens and not as a class apart, which again is a frequent refrain. It is also worrying that those who have the ability to make a difference seem to treat survivors of CSA as somehow “different”. This just entrenches the problem. This causes real difficulty for survivors because they miss out too often on quality advice and assistance that would enable them to access the services they need and could make a real difference to their lives for example, specialist therapy.

We also see survivors not being told about their right to be compensated whether through criminal or legal proceedings. We are pleased to see that IICSA has recently recommended that this be put right. It is down to the Home office and Ministry of Justice to make sure that survivors are told of their rights to access justice, and that specialist help is available.