§ Mr. AllenTo ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the reply to the hon. Member for Nottingham, North of 9 March 1989,Official Report, column 607, how many times the interdepartmental working group on child sexual abuse has met since 9 March 1989; and what has been discussed.
§ Mr. YeoSince March 1989 the interdepartmental group (IDG) on child abuse has met 15 times and made good progress in addressing a wide range of cross-sector policy issues. The IDG has recently issued a strategic statement on working with offenders, setting out strategic and service objectives for social services departments, health services, and Home Office probation and prison services. A copy of the statement is in the Library.
§ Mr. AllenTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimates he has of the percentage of children who are sexually abused.
§ Mr. YeoInformation is not available centrally in the form requested. The information collected centrally relates to the numbers of children who are on the child protection registers. These list all children in the local authority's area who are the subject of an inter-agency protection plan because of the risk of abuse. Child protection registers are therefore not a record of all cases of child abuse. The latest information available relates to the year ending 31 March 1991 and is in the published feedback "Children and Young Persons on Child Protection Registers England 1991". Copies are available in the Library.
§ Mr. AllenTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what progress has been made on child sexual abuse since the statement by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State on 15 May 1989,Official Report, columns 145–48; if she will provide a table of recent, current and proposed research funded by each Government Department relevant to child sexual abuse in each of the years since 1979, listing (a) projects under consideration, with earmarked funding, (b) projects in progress, (c) projects completed, (d) broad themes indentified for research and the actual and projected cost in each case; and if she will make a statement;
(2) if she will make a statement on the progress which has been made on each of the projects of research on child abuse listed in her predecessor's answer of 27 January 1989, Official Report, column 798;
(3) what investigations her Department is (a) funding and (b) co-operating on in respect of (i) the sexual abuse of children and (ii) the ritual abuse of children;
(4) if she will update her answer of 27 January 1989, Official Report, columns 795–98, showing the total amount spent by her Department on research into the sexual abuse of children in each of the years since 1979, listing the name of each project, its cost and completion date.
§ Mr. YeoInformation is not available centrally in the precise form requested. The "Strategic Statement on Working with Abusers", produced by the inter-departmental group on child abuse, a Department of Health paper "Expenditure on Child Care Research Financial Year 1990/91" and a departmental report on "Progress on the 1992 Child Care Research Strategy", contain information on these matters. Copies of these documents are available in the Library.
184WIn addition, the Department is funding a research project into cases of organised abuse where there are alleged ritualistic elements. The project is being carried out in collaboration with an Economic and Science Research Council-funded project by researchers from Manchester university.
§ Mr. AllenTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will establish a regional centre for the research and treatment of sexual offenders and their child victims.
§ Mr. YeoI have no plans to do so. It is a matter for the local statutory and voluntary organisations concerned to assess the need and provision for such a regional centre.
§ Mr. AllenTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what contact her Department has with Governments in the United States of America, Australia and the EC regarding their experience in the creation and running of national institutes for research into child sexual abuse.
§ Mr. YeoI refer the hon. Member to the reply given to him by my hon. Friend the then Minister for Health on 14 June 1990 at column272.
§ Mr. AllenTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what was the amount of money being spent by Government Departments on research into the sexual abuse of children(a) at May 1989 and (b) currently; and if she will make a statement.
§ Mr. YeoThe following amounts were allocated by Government Departments for research into child sexual abuse.
1989–90 £ 1992–93 £ Department of Health 92,000 493,000 Home Office 72,000 54,000 Social Work Services Group (Scottish Office) 17,000 112,000 Total 181,000 659,000 In addition the Department of Health funds a number of projects covering both sexual and physical abuse of children.
§ Mr. AllenTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what facilities her Department offers to local government to spread the best practice in suspected cases of sexual abuse of children.
§ Mr. YeoThe Department routinely issues guidance to local authorities and is due to host a continuation of the series of annual national conferences for chairmen of area protection committees, the proceedings of which will be disseminated. In addition, several projects in the Department's central training initiative are concerned with child sexual abuse and as part of the training support programme (child care) a special development group has produced guidelines for local authority training officers to assist them with planning their staff training in his area. The Department's social services inspectorate also produces reports which highlight good practice.
A new edition of "Working Together" was issued to coincided with the implementation of the Children Act 1989 and reflected the changes introduced by the Act and the greater emphasis on parental participation.
185WA centrally funded training initiative was launched in 1986, £689,000 will be given for a range of training projects in 1991–93.
A training support programme (Child Care and Children Act) was started in 1989–90 to enhance the quality of social services provided for children and their families by increasing and improving training provision for staff who work in this field.
Guidelines for SSD trainers and managers on child sexual abuse were issued in conjuction with "Working Together". The guidelines provide local authority trainers and managers with overall principles and a framework within which child sexual abuse training should be organised.
A centrally funded treatment initiative began in 1990–91; £400,000 will be given for a range of projects in 1992–93.