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Children in the Care of Lambeth Council – Investigation Report

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Children in the Care of Lambeth Council – Investigation Report Children in the care of Lambeth Council Investigation Report July 2021 20202021 Children in the care of Lambeth Council Investigation Report July 2021 A report of the Inquiry Panel Professor Alexis Jay OBE Professor Sir Malcolm Evans KCMG OBE Ivor Frank Drusilla Sharpling CBE © Crown copyright 2021 The text of this document (this excludes, where present, the Royal Arms and all departmental or agency logos) may be reproduced free of charge in any format or medium provided that it is reproduced accurately and not in a misleading context. The material must be acknowledged as Crown copyright and the document title specified. Where third‑party material has been identified, permission from the respective copyright holder must be sought. Any enquiries related to this publication should be sent to us at [email protected] or Freepost IICSA INDEPENDENT INQUIRY. This publication is available at https://www.iicsa.org.uk/publications CCS0321240304 07/21 Printed on paper containing 75% recycled‑fibre content minimum. Printed in the UK by the APS Group on behalf of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office The following typographical corrections were made to the report on 2 August 2021: Page 165, paragraph 52: amended to read ‘Mr Gargini told us that he received advice from the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) lead to the effect that there would need to be “a proper risk assessment around the impact of an approach by police” before this type of contact letter could be adopted.’ Page 193, Annex 1: amended to read ‘Deborah Britstone’. Contents Executive Summary v Pen portraits xi Part A: Introduction 1 A.1: Background to the investigation 2 A.2: Lambeth Council 3 A.3: Methodology 6 A.4: Terminology and references 8 Part B: The reality of life in the care of Lambeth Council 15 B.1: Introduction 16 B.2: Case study: Shirley Oaks 16 B.3: Case study: South Vale 25 B.4: Increased risk of sexual abuse 31 Part C: Children with complex needs and communication difficulties 39 C.1: Introduction 40 C.2: Provision for children with complex needs in the care of Lambeth Council 40 C.3: Case study: Ivy House 41 C.4: Case study: Monkton Street 45 C.5: Other concerns arising from the case studies 47 Part D: Case study: Angell Road 51 D.1: Introduction 52 D.2: Michael John Carroll: a sexual offender 53 D.3: Failures to investigate sexual offending 62 D.4: Carroll’s fostering applications 69 Part E: Children in foster care 77 E.1: Introduction 78 E.2: The 1980s: LA‑A23 78 E.3: The 1990s: LA‑A61 82 E.4: The 2000s: LA‑A147 83 E.5: The safety of children in foster care: 2000 84 Part F: The culture of Lambeth Council 87 F.1: Introduction 88 F.2: Corruption 88 F.3: A state of chaos 90 F.4: Bullying, intimidation and racism 93 F.5: Trade union influence 94 F.6: Tensions between councillors and staff 96 F.7: Deaths in care and cover‑up 99 F.8: Lambeth Council in 2020 102 F.9: Apologies and redress 105 Part G: The role of leaders in relation to children in care 107 G.1: Introduction 108 G.2: Leadership roles within Lambeth Council 108 G.3: Themes 108 Part H: Allegations of improper interference 121 H.1: Introduction 122 H.2: Operation Trawler 123 H.3: Operation Middleton and CHILE 129 H.4: The Social Services Inspectorate 131 H.5: Freemasons 133 Part I: Inspection, oversight and external reviews 135 I.1: Introduction 136 I.2: Regulatory framework 136 I.3: Internal inspection and oversight 137 I.4: External inspection and oversight 140 Part J: Receiving and prosecuting allegations of child sexual abuse 151 J.1: Introduction 152 J.2: Achieving Best Evidence guidance 152 J.3: The investigation and prosecution of child sexual abuse relating to children in the care of Lambeth Council 155 J.4: Key issues 171 Part K: Conclusions and recommendations 179 K.1: Conclusions 180 K.2: Matters to be explored further by the Inquiry 187 K.3: Recommendations 188 Annex 1: Overview of process and evidence obtained by the Inquiry 190 Annex 2: Glossary 203 Annex 3: Acronyms 206 Annex 4: Recommendations proposed by core participants 207 Executive Summary This investigation examined the scale and nature of the sexual abuse experienced by children in the care of Lambeth Council over several decades since the 1960s, and the extent of any institutional failures to protect children in care from sexual abuse and exploitation. It looked in detail at five of Lambeth Council’s residential children’s units – Angell Road, South Vale Assessment Centre, the Shirley Oaks complex, Ivy House and Monkton Street. The latter two cared for children with complex needs and communication difficulties. The Inquiry also examined the Council’s foster care service. It is hard to comprehend the cruelty and sexual abuse inflicted on children in the care of Lambeth Council over many years, by staff, by foster carers and their families, and by volunteers in residential settings. With one or two exceptions, a succession of elected members and senior professionals ought to have been held accountable for allowing this to happen, either by their active commission or complicit omission. Lambeth Council was only able to identify one senior Council employee, over the course of 40 years, who was disciplined for their part in this catalogue of sexual abuse. By June 2020, Lambeth Council was aware of 705 former residents of three children’s homes in this investigation (Shirley Oaks, South Vale and Angell Road) who have made complaints of sexual abuse. The biggest of these homes – Shirley Oaks – was the subject of allegations against 177 members of staff or individuals connected with the home, involving at least 529 former residents. It was closed in 1983. The true scale of the sexual abuse against children in Lambeth Council’s care will never be known, but it is certain to be significantly higher than is formally recorded. Frontline staff employed to care for these most vulnerable children frequently failed to take action when they knew about sexual abuse. In so many cases they showed little warmth or compassion towards the child victims, who were left to cope with the trauma of their abuse on their own. More widely, it was as if staff intended to create a harsh and punitive environment for children who had the misfortune to be in public care, through no fault of their own. There were many black children in Lambeth Council’s care. In Shirley Oaks in 1980, 57 percent of children in its care were black. During 1990 and 1991, 85 percent of children who lived at South Vale were black. Racism was evident in their hostile and abusive treatment by some staff. Far from being a sanctuary from abuse and neglect, Shirley Oaks and South Vale were brutal places where violence and sexual assault were allowed to flourish. Angell Road systematically exposed children (including those under the age of five years) to sexual abuse. For many children, these homes did nothing to change their lives for the better. For many children, the experience they had was worse than living at home with their birth families. Nor did foster care routinely provide a safe alternative for children in care. For many years, foster carers were not adequately vetted by the Council and were not the subject of criminal record checks. The Social Services Inspectorate (SSI) reported in 2000 that potentially large numbers of children in Lambeth Council’s care had not been allocated a social worker, v Children in the care of Lambeth Council: Investigation Report were not placed with approved foster carers and had none of the protection afforded by regular visiting, monitoring or statutory reviews. Sexual abuse by carers and family members therefore occurred with no trusted adult available for a child to talk to. Dame Heather Rabbatts (chief executive from 1995 to 2000) initiated a review of all foster care placements to address the issue of criminal record checks. As a consequence, the number of foster care placements reduced from 240 to 160. Some accounts described by victims in residential settings and foster care are given below. LA‑A307 was taken to Shirley Oaks at the age of nine. He described hearing other children screaming at night and he himself routinely experienced violence and sexual assault, including being photographed whilst being raped. LA‑A147 was in the care of Lambeth Council in the 1990s and 2000s, from the age of three. Over ten years, she was placed in nine children’s homes and with four sets of foster carers. She described being raped by a foster carer’s teenage son at the age of nine, and was also frequently sexually abused by older men she met whilst in care. By the age of 13, she had developed a drug addiction and was “selling herself” to fund it.1 LA‑A2 was found dead in a bathroom at Shirley Oaks in 1977. Lambeth Council did not inform the coroner that he had alleged being sexually abused by Donald Hosegood, his ‘house father’. In the course of Hosegood’s employment at Shirley Oaks, six out of eight children looked after by him and his wife alleged sexual abuse by him. LA‑A7 described sexual abuse by three male members of staff, including two from South Vale. Two of them separately photographed him at their private homes when he was either naked or wearing only his underwear. One of them, Leslie Paul, was convicted of indecent assaults against LA‑A7.
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