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WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES BY DEPUTY M.R. HIGGINS OF ST. HELIER
ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 17th JUNE 2014
Question
Will the Minister advise members of the number of cases of sexual abuse of children that were reported to the Children's Service in each and every year since 1995 together with the following information -
- whether the alleged offences took place on private property or public property such as States homes, schools, institutions or foster homes funded by the States;
- whether all the alleged offences were reported to the States of Jersey Police and, if not, why not;
- what action was taken in each case to protect the children concerned and bring the perpetrators to court;
- how many successful prosecutions were carried out in these cases and what penalties were imposed on the perpetrators?
Answer
Information systems used by the children's service do not enable the capture of the information in the format requested. Historic Individual case files are retained and will contain this information on a case by case basis. Although it would be possible to audit all case files to provide this information, it would be an extensive task requiring significant additional resources.
Since August 2013, all enquiries relating to safeguarding concerns for children are received by the multi agency safeguarding hub (MASH). This includes Children's Service, the States of Jersey Police, Education welfare officers and health service representatives. In the first eight month of operation, the MASH received 1379 inquiries. These are broken down as follows:
Categories | MASH Records | Percentage |
Child in Need | 905 | 66% |
Domestic Abuse | 190 | 14% |
Child Protection | 122 | 9% |
Self Harm | 107 | 8% |
Missing Children | 26 | 2% |
Sexting | 21 | <1% |
Child Sexual Exploitation | 8 | <1% |
Grand Total | 1379 |
|
It should be noted that Child Sexual Exploitation accounts for less than 1% of the enquiries received.
- Information systems used by the children's service do not enable the capture of the information in the format requested. Historic Individual case files are retained and will contain this information on a case by case basis. Although it would be possible to audit all case files to provide this information, it would be an extensive task requiring significant additional resources. Wherever alleged offences take place, they are dealt with in the same way.
- All enquiries into MASH allow each case to be dealt with by all agencies simultaneously under joint working protocols. As stated above, this includes the States of Jersey Police. Prior to the establishment of the MASH, all alleged offences would be reported to the States of Jersey Police for joint investigation.
- Matters relating to prosecution are the responsibility of the Law Officers Department and the States of Jersey Police and should be directed to those Departments. The Children's service will in each case, arrange for multi agency discussion, multi agency strategy meeting, joint investigation, allocation to social work services, further assessment, registration under the Child Protection structure, and accommodation by the Minister for a Looked After Child if necessary.
Matters relating to prosecution are the responsibility of the Law Officers Department and the States of Jersey Police and should be directed to those Departments