Making Noise: Children’s voices for positive change after sexual abuse Children’s experiences of help-seeking and support after sexual abuse in the family environment Camille Warrington with Helen Beckett, Elizabeth Ackerley, Megan Walker and Debbie Allnock Each circle shown here (and on the inside back cover) was contributed by (and represents) an individual interview or focus group participant. Covers_montage.indd 1 19/04/17 11:23 CONTENTS Acknowledgements 6 Executive Summary 7 1. Introduction 13 1.1 Overview 14 1.2 Existing research on CSA 16 1.3 Report structure and overview 18 2. Methodology and ethics 21 2.1 Introduction 22 2.2 Individual interviews with children and young people 22 2.3 Focus groups 32 2.4 Survey 33 2.5 Data recording and analysis 34 2.6 Methodological reflections 34 2.7 Ethics and research governance 35 3. Identification and disclosure of child sexual abuse in the family environment 37 3.1 Overview 39 3.2 Attitudes towards disclosure of child sexual abuse in the family environment 40 3.3 Delays to recognition and telling 41 3.4 Who children disclose to 42 3.5 Children’s decision-making processes 46 3.6 Prompts or catalysts for disclosure 55 3.7 Specific barriers to disclosure for particular groups of children 59 3.8 Recognition of abuse by others 65 3.9 The consequences of recognition and disclosure 67 3.10 Summary: supporting the early recognition of children’s experiences of abuse 69 CONTENTS 3 CONTENTS 4. Impact on, and role of, family and safe carers 71 4.1 Overview 73 4.2 The impacts on family members and family life 73 4.3 Young people’s sense of responsibility towards family 80 4.4 Support to parents and families 82 4.5 Children’s involvement with care systems 84 4.6 Summary: recognising support to families and carers as critical 88 5. Access to, and experiences of, professional welfare support 89 5.1 Overview 91 5.2 Welfare professionals responding to CSA in the family environment 91 5.3 Referral and access to therapeutic services 92 5.4 Children and young people’s experiences of social work 105 5.5 Managing endings and transitions 109 5.6 Professional qualities and styles of support 111 5.7 Summary: valuing specialist therapeutic support and wider forms of care 116 6. Criminal justice proceedings 117 6.1 Overview 119 6.2 Initial contact with the police: feeling safe and feeling scared 119 6.3 Investigative practices 123 6.4 Court 129 6.5 Justice 132 6.6 Welfare support through criminal justice processes 133 6.7 Summary: prioritising victim welfare 137 4 Making Noise: Children’s voices for positive change after sexual abuse 7. Impact on and role of wider contexts (schooling and peers) 139 7.1 Overview 141 7.2 Schools 141 7.3 Peers: challenges and sensitivities 145 7.4 Support from friends 148 7.5 Formal peer support 151 7.6 Summary: supporting children in wider contexts 152 8. Recovery and moving on 153 8.1 Overview 155 8.2 Recovery: ‘there’s no quick fix’ 156 8.3 Children’s hopes for the future: ‘normality’ and difference 160 8.4 Summary: supporting children to feel ‘whole’ 164 9. Conclusion 165 9.1 Recognising and responding to the ‘ripple effect’ 166 9.2 Listening to children 166 9.3 Practice and policy implications 168 References 173 Appendices 179 CONTENTS 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost thanks are due to the children and young people who met with members of the research team and so generously shared their personal experiences and perspectives through interviews and focus groups. Their generosity in sharing their time and expertise for the benefit of others was both inspiring and humbling. In the majority of cases their involvement would also not have been possible without the support of parents or carers to whom we are extremely grateful. Thanks also to young people who took the time to complete survey questionnaires. Acknowledgements are also due to the individual staff from local agencies who supported children’s involvement in both the interviews, focus groups and survey. Without their tenacity and commitment (alongside those of children, young people and their carers) this project would have not have been possible. Services who supported this research include: All in Youth Project; Barnardo’s SECOS; Barnardo’s Turnaround; Cambridge Rape Crisis; Centre for Action on Rape and Abuse Essex (CARA); CLEAR; Coventry Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre (CRASAC); Doncaster Rape and Sexual Abuse Counselling Service (DRASACS); Equal Lives; EVA Women’s Aid; Fresh Start New Beginnings; The Green House; IMARA Nottingham; Link to Change; Manchester Factory Youth Zone; NSPCC: Letting the Future In Services (Gillingham; Newcastle; Swindon; York; Warrington); Portsmouth Abuse and Rape Counselling Service; Someone Cares; Youthscape. Members of both the professional and young people’s advisory groups played an invaluable role in supporting, inspiring and advising on this research. While the Young People’s Advisory Group cannot be named individually it is important to acknowledge their critical role and the commitment, creativity and wisdom they shared for the benefit of the research and participants. Members of the professional advisory group were: Duncan Craig (Survivors Manchester); Emily Cherry (NSPCC); Julia Davidson (Middlesex University); Anita Franklin (Coventry University); Fay Maxted OBE (the Survivors Trust); Amanda Naylor (Victim Support); Trish O’Donnell (NSPCC); Pragna Patel (Southall Black Sisters); Jenny Pearce OBE (University of Bedfordshire); Sue Thurman (Registered Intermediary/ Speech and Language Therapist); Caroline Trickey (NSPCC); Tim Woodhouse (Tiptoes Child Therapy Services). The research was generously funded and supported by the Children’s Commissioner for England. It was commissioned following their identification of a significant gap in evidence relating to children’s perspectives of help-seeking and support after child sexual abuse in the family network. Particular thanks are due to Graham Ritchie at the Children’s Commissioner who was responsible for commissioning this research and led support for this process throughout. Thanks also to members of the CSAFE Inquiry panel who met with and provided feedback and encouragement to the research team and YPAG. Finally thank you to wider team members and colleagues at the International Centre (IC) and NSPCC who contributed to this project – in particular Charlotte Moss (NSPCC) for managing the Young People’s Advisory Group; Trish O’Donnell (NSPCC) for oversight and management of NSPCC’s involvement; Grace Freeman (NSPCC) for support with dissemination; and Kate D’Arcy (IC) for support with the survey. 6 Making Noise: Children’s voices for positive change after sexual abuse EXECUTIVE SUMMARY You might not think much of telling anyone, you might not realise how serious it is, you might be just like it’s a one-off thing. Especially if it’s your family you still feel like you want to protect them. That’s why it’s harder. You might realise that people aren’t supposed to do it [but] I think it all just comes back to it’s still your family really. (IV40, Female 17 years) ” Overview 1. This study was commissioned by the Children’s 4. The research sought to respond to a recognised Commissioner for England and carried out in gap in evidence from the perspectives of 2015/16 by staff from the International Centre: children and young people affected by CSA in Researching Child Sexual Exploitation, Violence the family environment. To our knowledge this and Trafficking, in partnership with the NSPCC. study represents data from the largest sample It sought to elicit children and young people’s of children and young people in a qualitative views and experiences of help-seeking and study on this issue. support after child sexual abuse (CSA) in the 5. The research aims were to improve family environment. understanding of participants’ experiences of: 2. The title, and spirit, of the research – ‘Making recognition, identification and disclosure Noise: children’s voices for positive change of CSA in the family environment after sexual abuse’ – was determined with our Young People’s Advisory Group, who have help-seeking and support played a critical role throughout the work. It contact with services as a result of represents our efforts to not only generate new reporting/identification of CSA research knowledge, but to simultaneously care systems, and demonstrate the capacity of children and young criminal justice procedures people to contribute to enhanced responses to these issues and the importance of challenging the cultures of silence in which abuse and and to ascertain children and young people’s impunity flourish. views on how such processes could be improved. 3. The research comprised 53 in-depth qualitative interviews with children aged 6 to 19 who were receiving support for experiences of CSA in the family environment. All interviewees were accessed through one of 15 third-sector therapeutic services from across England. This data was supplemented with focus groups (30 participants) and survey data (75 respondents) with more generic cohorts of young people exploring possible barriers to disclosure and service access. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 7 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Identification and disclosure of associated with identification or disclosure is vital for professionals wishing to provide child sexual abuse in the family effective support in the aftermath of CSA in the environment family environment. Services are not yet fully 6. Professionals and other adults continue to miss equipped to support children through these signs of children’s sexual abuse. This unfairly challenging and difficult processes. places responsibility on children and young people themselves to actively seek help in the event of CSA in the family environment. Impact on (and role of) 7. While the overwhelming majority of family and safe carers interviewees recognise the desirability of a safe 13.