Introduction

This book has outlined several major concerns about failures of current UK policies, practices and principles in protecting children from child sexual abuse (CSA). Some people, including survivors of CSA, may understandably be disillusioned with the capacity for reform of the statutory child protection system, and seek alternatives outside it. But it seems to us that a good statutory system has to be at the centre of society's attempts to keep children safer; it essentially supports other vital community and voluntary sector activities to protect children; and it crucially inspires confidence in the public, conspicuously practising the principles it professes to believe in.

This chapter offers some practical examples to follow or adapt, which will make for more effective, genuinely child-centred child protection systems, particularly but not solely in addressing sexual abuse. It suggests, first, that child protection authorities need to simplify and redefine their core aims, giving strong, clear direction and focus to everything they do. Core aims, values and ethical principles should be able to fit on a single page; these should infuse, underpin and inform child protection guidelines and procedures, and the beliefs and approaches of child protection staff working with children. For if staff do not truly take such core aims them on board, then guidelines and procedures – which may at times need to be complex, especially in complex abuse (see Davies, 2008, 2009, 2010) – may simply not be followed. A prime example of that problem involved the widespread ignoring of clear legislation and guidance about child sexual exploitation, when derogatory and blaming attitudes to these vulnerable young women heavily dictated their lack of protection (discussed in detail in Chapter Six).

The chapter then divides into two inter-related parts. The first considers some policies and practices which can overcome a basic problem: that children and young people find it exceptionally hard to disclose sexual abuse – at least in ways which adults can readily understand.