The vast majority of Survive’s service users are adult survivors of Child Sexual Abuse (CSA). Sadly, CSA is far more common than people think – with an estimated 500,000 children abused every year.
Organised networks (commonly referred to as ‘grooming gangs’) are just one aspect of sexual harm caused to our children and young people every day.
CSA can have a long term, even life-long, impact on a survivor; it is associated with later mental ill-health (including PTSD, anxiety, and depression), poorer physical health and socio-economic disadvantage. It is imperative that all CSA survivors feel heard, that their experiences are validated, and that they feel worthy of support to help them heal, rebuild and thrive.
Since October 2022, Survive has been campaigning alongside our colleagues at Act On IICSA (“ick-sa”) for the implementation in full of the 20 recommendations from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA). One of these recommendations includes the establishment of a Child Protection Authority which would provide the oversight we desperately need to keep current and future generations of children and young people safe from all types of sexual harm.
