17/01/2025: Police fear ‘rightwing driven’ reaction to grooming gangs will harm victims
Senior officers say fraction of child abuse cases relate to gangs and funding could be diverted from current cases.
08/01/2025: Cooper vows to make child abuse reporting mandatory
The government is to introduce laws that make it an offence to fail to report child sexual abuse concerns, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has confirmed.
19/12/2024: New pilot shows way for smaller platforms to play big part in online safety
A new pilot scheme is showing how even the smallest platforms can help play their part in preventing the spread of child sexual abuse imagery online.
16/12/2024: Archbishop of York ‘deeply sorry’ for not being able to act sooner over sex abuse case
Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell is due to take over from Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby next month as the Church battles serious sex abuse allegations.
14/12/2024: Inexperienced social worker did not identify Sara Sharif’s father as posing any risk
The murdered girl had been allowed to live with her father, who had repeatedly attracted the attention of police and social workers.
13/12/2024: Practitioners struggling to respond to extrafamilial harm to children, finds analysis of serious cases
Staff not picking up on early signs of risk, such as missing episodes, while there is little evidence that interventions are keeping children safe, says national safeguarding panel, in annual report.
12/12/2024: Sara Sharif ‘safeguarding failures’ criticised following murder convictions
Schoolgirl Sara Sharif was “failed in the starkest terms” by child protection services, the Children’s Commissioner for England has said following the convictions today of her father and stepmother for her murder.
12/12/2024: Our response to the Sara Sharif verdict
Maria Neophytou, Acting Chief Executive of the NSPCC, has responded to the Sara Sharif verdict.
04/12/2024: Telegram U-turns and joins child safety scheme
After years of ignoring pleas to sign up to child protection schemes, the controversial messaging app Telegram has agreed to work with an internationally recognised body to stop the spread of child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
03/12/2024: Case reviews ‘silent’ on racial bias in child protection decision making
Reviews relating to black, Asian or mixed heritage children inconsistently feature the voice of the child and their recommendations fail to provide high-quality learning, according to analysis.