ACT on IICSA has today announced the launch of its campaign, ‘The Elephant in the Room’, in response to the growing government inaction and unacceptably slow progress in implementing the 20 accepted recommendations from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA – “ick-sa”).
The campaign highlights the stark reality that, despite IICSA providing a clear blueprint for change, the UK continues to ignore the alarming truth that an estimated 500,000 children are sexually abused every year, with fewer than one in five ever disclosing their abuse, even when directly asked.
“IICSA laid out exactly what must change to protect children from sexual abuse. Yet three years later, those recommendations remain largely unimplemented. This failure to act leaves our children at risk damaging their futures and in many cases, taking their lives”, said John O’Brien of ACT on IICSA.
ACT on IICSA was established to work collaboratively with the government to ensure the implementation of IICSA’s recommendations, as was assumed by Baroness Louise Casey in her report on grooming gangs. The group brings together senior figures from the Inquiry and sector leaders who remain committed to seeing lasting systemic change.
“We are still ignoring the elephant in the room,” said Lucy Duckworth of ACT on IICSA. “Half a million children are being sexually abused every year, and although we have the plans for immediate action, we still refuse to run with them. There is no excuse for this delay. If IICSA’s recommendations had been implemented, many of the cases in the headlines today could have been prevented or certainly incepted earlier. This inaction will be a stain on our history and it is now up to all of us to ensure that it must end now.”
Survive is a core member of the Act on IICSA working group. Survive CEO, Mags Godderidge said: “The video released today really drives home the cost of inaction: since the final IICSA report was published, an estimated 1.5 million children have been sexually harmed. As a charity that works mainly with adult survivors of child sexual abuse, we see the long-term and often lifelong impact of child sexual abuse every day. We want to see processes in place to prevent this horrific abuse from occurring in the first place. We need the government to act at pace to implement these recommendations.”
ACT ON IICSA urges the Government to look at the ‘Elephant in the Room’, and we demand urgent, transparent progress on delivering IICSA’s recommendations.
For more information, please visit Act on IICSA.
