Safeguarding girls and protecting women post Jimmy Saville & #metoo

[SpareRibFem]

I don't understand, there was a lot of hand wringing after the revelations about Jimmy Saville became widely accepted. #metoo there was more handwringing about the need to listen to women when they are telling you something that makes you uncomfortable.

Saville was allowed to get away with what he didn't because he created an aura of fear and people would afraid of the backlash if they spoke up. Those that did suffered.

We were promised something like that could never happen again...

And yet now despite many women and girls saying they feel afraid and uncomfortable sharing single sex spaces with someone with a penis weren't told we're bigoted and verbally abused for saying that. Our employers are contacted and told we're bigots, we're doxxed.

And organisations like girl guides are going still further in saying it must be kept a secret when girls are being forced to sleep and change with a male bodied teen with a penis (& teen levels of hormones) and I'm not even allowed to identify what sex that male bodied teen with a penis is on a public forum

Girl Guides are taking that approach despite the knowledge that abusers use secrecy and shame to their advantage.

Just like with Saville anyone who excesses concerns is shouted down and accused of being the person in the wrong by the powerful. There is a culture of fear now. Celebrity voices in particular (thinking people like Munroe Bergdorf, Stephen Fry and long list of others) are given more weight to shout down women's concerns. Male bodied people feelings are paramount despite almost all sexual abusers being male bodied (and most of the tiny tiny number of female bodied sexual abusers working with and being in thrall to a male bodied abuser)

Did we as a society learn nothing from Saville & the multitude of other abuse scandals that women and children/girls should be listened to, that celebrities voices help hide abusers, that telling girls to keep secrets from their parents about the presence of penises in their bedrooms and changing rooms and showing them they will be blamed and abused if they transgress and tell someone creates an environment where abuse can flourish.

Just wanted to mention a public seminar on Mandatory Reporting taking place on 27 September organised by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. It seems to be the first of two, the second part is in April. As far as I can see, anybody can attend.

Details, agenda and list of participants here;
www.iicsa.org.uk/research-seminars/mandatory-reporting-seminar

From the thread following Girl Guides decision to dismiss leaders who had raised sfaeguarding concerns.

deepwatersolo "Lisa Muggeridge basically says GG has been turned by a network of predatory males, naming names, saying that Agnes was fired was a typical move in such a scenario, removing anyone with the ability to see through the bullshit (I am paraphrasing here). Worth listening to." www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeIcbzg3VAo relevent current thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3374614-John-Ozimek-now-Jane-Fae-on-women-feminists-and-victims-of-pornographers

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3373458-girlguiding-expels-leaders-who-question-trans-policy www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3373829-guides-twitter

Professor of forensic psychiatry, Jeremy Coid on the 'psychopathology of of disturbed and sometimes dangerous individuals'
& 'the golden opportunity for further sexual offending" presented by current situation in prisons.www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3373901-Gender-folly-in-womens-jails-Sunday-Times-Jeremy-Coid-Emeritus-professor-of-forensic-psychiatry-Queen-Mary-University-of-London

Helen Watts outlines her and other guiding leaders and parents' safeguarding concerns on Radio 4 World at One: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3374765-World-at-One-radio-4-NOW-is-this-Agnes-Helen

Is that Unlock organisation capable of changing the law about DBS checks? I suppose anything is possible, but if it happens in a case like that one, then there's little point in keeping DBS at all.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-45630113
Domestic abuse victims 'failed' by private probation service

Victims and their children are being put at risk when domestic abusers return to the community, a report says.

HM Inspectorate of Probation found that, in seven out of 10 cases, protection for victims was inadequate.

Chief inspector Dame Glenys Stacey said the private Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) responsible for managing offenders in England and Wales were "nowhere near effective enough."

The government has announced it will scrap their contracts in 2020.

2020!!!! They know there is a problem NOW but they are not doing anything to stop the problem FOR TWO YEARS because the contract is more important.

How in the hell is this not somehow a breech of contract??

The report said probation officers' failure to understand the danger to victims of abuse was of "grave concern" in some instances.

Dame Glenys said: "Too often we were left wondering how safe victims and children were, especially when practitioners failed to act on new information indicating that they could be in danger."

Jesus fucking Christ.

Everyone told that cockwomble Chris Grayling this would happen. Everyone.

OP TurfClub wrote:

'Jacinta Brooks is a serial paedophile'

metro.co.uk/2018/10/01/trans-woman-pretended-to-be-a-boy-to-groom-a-girl-7994533/

"Prosecutor Berenice Mulvanny said that police found screenshots of the conversation with the girl along with hundreds of child abuse pictures. Brooks gave no comment during a police interview but admitted she ‘couldn’t argue’ about being attracted to children. Miss Mulvanny said: ‘Brooks knew the girl was underage but sent her sexual messages. The defendant originally pretended to be a 14-year-old boy but soon admitted her real age.’

thread:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3381513-Woman-41-pretended-to-be-a-boy-to-groom-a-girl

The original Metro article headline was 'Woman Who Pretended To be a Boy to Groom a Girl' this was later changed.

Attached are Bench Guidelines for the court which would presumably have applied to this man, Jacinta Brooks /Duncan Smart who has been convicted of serial paedophile crimes against children and now 'identifies as a woman'

also from the Metro:

The latest victim’s mother said that she would be haunted for the rest of a life by ‘this pathetic excuse of a person’ and had been forced to leave because of the severe trauma.

Judge Nicholas Rowland described Brooks a ‘danger to children’

The court heard Brooks’ victim was forced to leave school and was suffering with trauma after the incident.

In a victim impact statement the girl’s mother said: ‘The fact I cannot protect my daughter from this pathetic excuse of a person will haunt me forever.’

investigating officer PC Simon Leon, of Hampshire Constabulary, said: ‘Brooks is a dangerous individual'

Current thread, OP Juells wrote:
"Lessons will always be learned, but it seems like they don't stick.

news.sky.com/story/nottingham-care-home-inquiry-reveals-343-cases-of-child-sexual-abuse-11514478

In another case a care worker who was engaging in sexual activity with an underage girl in his care was not sacked because he may not have been aware it was wrong. confused

The Labour MP quoted might be an ally? He's obviously aware of what happens when safeguarding breaks down."
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3382156-Lessons-will-be-learned

Extract from article:
'Nottingham care home inquiry reveals 343 cases of child sexual abuse
A "rift" between social services and police led to a crisis in child protection and hundreds of survivors being let down.'

A generation of young people in care in Nottinghamshire were "betrayed" by a dysfunctional system that allowed the sexual abuse of vulnerable children to flourish, an inquiry has heard.

The extent of the scandal was outlined at the opening of the Independent Inquiry Into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) hearings in Nottingham that revealed that 343 individuals have come forward to say they were sexually abused as children.

Despite three previous police investigations and numerous reviews, the scale of the scandal in Nottinghamshire has never been fully understood or investigated.

The inquiry heard there had been a historical "rift" between the police and social services that led to a "crisis" in child protection in the county.

One unidentified complainant said in a statement: "The approach that the councils of Nottingham have taken to the abuse is just an extension of the abuse.

"It just drags it on."

Patrick Sadd, counsel to the Inquiry, said: "As at 2015, when this investigation was selected to form part of the national inquiry, recent police investigations had only led to one conviction for child sexual abuse in a children's home."

Since 2015 there have been a series of further criminal prosecutions in Nottinghamshire.

One of the most notorious children's homes in Nottingham, known as Beechwood, has been singled out by the inquiry for special investigation. There were 136 allegations of sexual abuse from children there between the 1960s and the 1990s.

Yet just two instances of disciplinary action resulted from the allegations of sexual abuse.

In another case a care worker who was engaging in sexual activity with an underage girl in his care was not sacked because he may not have been aware it was wrong.

Mr Sadd told the inquiry that the following justification was given to a subsequent investigation: "He was not dismissed because in 1983 there was a lack of clear guidance given to him as the role of a house parent."

John Mann, the Labour MP for Bassetlaw in Nottinghamshire, who is representing around 30 survivors, told Sky News: "It is a total betrayal, the system didn't work for them, the institutions didn't even co-operate and hardly talked to each other.

"It is quite astonishing how they were let down... This is institutional failure but we need to learn for the present and the future." (continues)

I don't know if it's worth mentioning her but the Fawcett Society have done a survey to find out if the metoo movement had made it more likely that sexual harassment is being reported.
A spokeswoman on the Today programme this morning said that they had surveyed (can't remember how many) "people" - nb not "women" and that the result was looking positive.

The interviewer introduced the piece with a mention of men and the spokeswoman mentioned at least twice that more men were reporting harassment (I assume of themselves) - she sounded very pleased at that. In fact I can't recall that she mentioned women at all. If anyone wants to check it out it was at about 06:50.

Oh now I re-listen she mentions women twice. Towards the end.

Not sure if this has been linked to yet, but:
thefederalist.com/2018/10/04/five-year-old-allegedly-assaulted-school-bathroom-transgender-policy/

(extract)

When Pascha Thomas complained her five-year-old daughter had been sexually assaulted by a male classmate who identifies as female, she found herself the subject of an investigation.

ByBre Payton

The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of the U.S. Department of Education has opened an investigation into a Georgia elementary school for its handling of a sexual assault that allegedly took place in an elementary school bathroom after a district-wide policy was enacted allowing male students to enter the girls’ bathroom.

On the evening of November 16, 2017, Pascha Thomas’s five-year-old daughter complained of vaginal pain. That’s when her daughter said she had been sexually assaulted by a male classmate in the bathroom at Oakhurst Elementary School in Decatur, Georgia earlier that week.

By her daughter’s account, she had asked the teacher if she could be excused from class to use the restroom. When she was coming out of the bathroom stall, the child said, a male classmate who had followed her into the bathroom was waiting for her.

Victim’s Mother Says She Was Treated Like The Bad Guy

A redacted version of thenarrative complaint states that he allegedly “pushed her against a wall, pushed his hand between her legs, and repeatedly felt and poked at her genitals while she struggled and called out for him to stop. No one came to help.”

The next day, Pascha went to report her daughter’s story to school officials, which was relayed to the Decatur Police Department. It was determined that the Department of Family and Children Services (DFCS) would coordinate services for her daughter and the boy who allegedly assaulted her. Pascha took her daughter to the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Hospital to be examined later that day, where she again complained of vaginal pain.

She heard nothing from school officials for several weeks, during which Pascha says they dodged her repeated calls and ignored her requests to speak with them. When they finally agreed to meet with her on December 8, Pascha learned the boy her daughter says assaulted her identifies as “gender fluid.” He had been allowed to use the girl’s bathroom due to a district-wide policy change that allowed students to use whatever bathroom they felt was “correct,” and that the policy would remain in place — allowing him to continue using the same restroom as her daughter.

School Official Says It’s Irrelevant If Victims Are Believed

Decatur Schools spokeswoman, Courtney Burnett, confirmed to The Federalist the policy remains in place to this day. When asked if it’s important to believe women and girls when they say they have been sexually assaulted, Burnett said that is irrelevant.

“Whether or not a woman is believed has nothing to do with this,” she said. “No one has been sexually assaulted.”

(continued...)

That makes me so angry. Sure, it could have still happened if the boy hadn't officially been 'allowed' to enter, but this takes victim-blaming to new heights! "No one has been sexual assaulted" - WTAF, how can they be so sure if they haven't investigated it properly? Is it down to a legal definition that requires penis-in-vagina sex to 'qualify'?

James Kirkup, Spectator article: 'The cautionary tale of Karen White'

concludes:
"The concern that has been raised about self-ID and other trans-rights policies is about safeguarding, about protecting vulnerable people from manipulative and abusive men. The expressed gender identity of those men doesn’t really come into it, except where those people might use the concept of gender to exploit those rules and facilitate their abuse.

Put more bluntly, no one is scared about trans people here. They’re scared about rapists. Some rapists say they’re trans. Get over it.

Because acknowledging that some sex offenders will use gender laws to facilitate their abuse is no more “anti-trans” than accepting that some sex offenders used their positions as Roman Catholic priests to carry out abuse is anti-Catholic. Bad people do bad things. Anyone making, implementing or advising on policy should accept that basic fact and work to mitigate it, not cry bigot when someone asks whether that policy is open to misuse.

One of the feminist groups that raised such concerns is Fair Play for Women. These are the people who really sounded the alarm about transgender offenders in the women’s prison estate, with a report last autumn that was later borne out in official figures released by the MoJ. As the group’s warnings over prisons are being so horribly vindicated by the Karen White case, I hope that people in authority will pay more attention to FPFW’s most recent work, which is about domestic violence refuges and shelters.

That report makes two points that deserve much more attention in political conversation about gender, law and domestic violence. The first is that a lot of women who run and use shelters feel they can’t talk freely about this issue, for the familiar reasons that they will be accused of transphobia, lose their jobs and lose funding for the services they provide for vulnerable women.

The second, and more fundamental, point is that the people who run shelters and refuges believe that laws proposed to make life easier for transgender people will also have the effect of making it easier for abusive men to abuse women.

The report, based on the accounts of domestic violence workers and volunteers, makes abundantly clear the fact that the sort of men who wish to hurt, rape and kill women will take every opportunity to do. One shelter manager with 37 years’ experience told FPFW researchers:

“With self-ID policies we will effectively be giving the keys to women’s refuges to abusive men. If that happens, beyond a shadow of a doubt, women will die. Never ever underestimate the potential for abusive men to track down, find and torture their victim.”

Perhaps you think that’s hyperbolic or excessively dramatic. If so, consider again the case of Karen White.

In 2016, the Prison Service put in place a policy that was intended to make life easier for transwomen in custody. That policy meant Karen White, a rapist and child abuser, was able to gain access to vulnerable women and sexually assault them. In the words of the prosecution in White’s latest trial, White is a “predator” who sought to “use a transgender persona to put herself in contact with vulnerable persons she can then abuse.”

Those words were spoken in a trial that ended in Karen White being given a life sentence and the judge telling White: “You are a predator and highly manipulative and in my view you are a danger.”

The Karen White case came about even after MPs had been given clear warnings by several experts that dangerous and manipulative predators like Karen White would try to exploit gender laws and rules in order to abuse women. They failed to act on those warnings and properly scrutinise the rules involved in the Karen White case.

Now, that Fair Play for Women report about domestic violence shelters gives MPs and other people in power another chance to do better. They have been given a clear warning by the professionals who spend their every waking moment dealing with the harm done by abusive men and trying to protect women from abusive men, that such men will try to exploit laws on gender change to find, abuse and kill women.

What will it take to persuade them to listen to that warning this time?"
thread:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3391790-James-Kirkup-The-cautionary-tale-of-Karen-White

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/sex-claims-against-charity-workers-rise-7hf2rtbk9?shareToken=ac9d478c0554b09b86b67098ba99f73a
OP TimeLady wrote:
"Charities are reporting a record number of sexual misconduct cases after a public crisis of confidence in their activities triggered by the Oxfam scandal.

The charity watchdog received 633 serious incident reports in August, 464 of which related to safeguarding concerns including exploitation and abuse of aid beneficiaries, child protection cases and sexual harassment."

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3395011-Sex-claims-against-charity-workers-rise

The Austistic Women with an IQ of 53 who was deemed legally unable to consent and was 'pimped out'

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3397893-And-another-safeguarding-one-Autistic-woman-pimped-out

The incredibly serious revelation that the NHS same-sex ward policy was a lie, told deliberately:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3396859-Weve-been-lied-to-about-Single-SEX-wards-since-2010

Lisa Muggeridge (Social Worker) on the very serious safeguarding issues raised by ITVs drama 'Butterfly'.
The first episode was braodcast last weekend (1 of 3)

There are very serious concerns for the impact this drama will have on vulnerable children and young people:

'#Butterfly, Mermaids, and how easy it is to hide grooming in plain sight.'

Professional analysis of the first episode using Child Protection knowledge:

BBC: 'Children's services: What do we know about the children most in need?'
(extract)
"A steep rise in vulnerable children needing protection over the past 10 years is pushing council children's services in England into crisis, suggests research to be published tomorrow.

There has been a substantial increase in calls from the public and professionals worried about a child, according to a study for the Association of Directors of Children's Services.

The number of investigations where a child is believed to be at risk of significant harm has also more than doubled.

Over the past year, almost 2.4m people contacted children's services because they were worried about a child - a 78% increase on 10 years ago, while serious investigations over concerns of significant harm are up from just under 77,000 in 2008 to almost 200,000 last year - a rise of 159%.

Council leaders have warned they will have to overspend their budgets to meet demand, though the government says extra money was announced for children's services in the Budget and it is working with councils to ease the pressures and improve children's lives. (continues)

Summary points:

1. A considerable increase in demand

The past decade has seen pressure increase across the board in the child protection system - the number of calls from people concerned about a child has nearly doubled.

1. Domestic violence is behind nearly half the cases

In nearly half of the cases, where social workers carry out an assessment, domestic violence is a factor. The next most common issue is mental health problems.

1. Funding has dropped since 2010...

Throughout the era of austerity, while councils have made cuts elsewhere, they maintain they have tried to protect spending on children's services.

But once inflation is taken into account, the money available to protect children has still fallen significantly. That combined with increasing demand and more complex cases has led to councils overspending their budget for children's services.

1. ...but the number of social workers has increased

Finding and keeping front-line staff in this high-pressure world is a constant issue for local authorities.

The most up-to-date figures show a slight increase in the number of social workers but a third will have been with their current local authority for less that two years and 15% will change jobs during the year.

1. Children in care have increased by a quarter

Most children that social workers are involved with will remain with their families but the numbers removed from their home and taken into local authority care have risen by 24% in a decade.

1. Most children in care are older

Most children in the care system are older, with the largest single group aged between 10 and 15.

1. There is a North-South divide...

There is something of a North-South divide when it comes to the number of children looked after by councils.

1. ...and there are divides within communities

Talk to social workers and many will say they are seeing families facing real financial hardship, with austerity and welfare cuts playing their part in pushing people into crisis.

That's reflected by research that found children living in the poorest areas were at least 10 times more likely to be taken into care than those in the most affluent parts of the country. It is a pattern that is repeated across all the nations of the UK.

1. Most children are with foster parents...

Nearly three-quarters of children being looked after by councils live with foster parents, which costs local authorities about £1.7bn a year .

Since the 1960s, government policy has moved away from residential children's homes.

10. ...and children are likely to return to families Almost a third of the more than 31,000 children who left care in 2017 returned to their families.

About 14% were adopted, after spending an average of two years in care.

11. Children often face difficulties after care About a quarter of children who cease to be looked after when they reach their 18th birthdays continue to live with their foster parents but the future for many care leavers is difficult. Of the 18- to 21-year-olds who stayed in touch with councils, 40% were not in education, training or employment.

www.bbc.com/news/education-46049154

nuanced discussion now on Radio 4 PM

"An inquiry into the funding and provision of children’s services has been launched as local authorities struggle to cope with the impact of rising demand combined with funding cuts.
The real-terms spending on local children’s services fell by 7% between 2010/11 and 2016/17 due to cuts for discretionary services. This was despite a 3.2% increase in spending on statutory children’s services during the same period.

On top of this, local authorities have had to cope with significant increases in demand. The National Audit Office calculated that the number of looked-after children grew by 10.9% during this six year period.

The Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee has launched a new inquiry into funding and provision of local authorities’ children’s services."
www.localgov.co.uk/Inquiry-into-the-funding-of-childrens-services-launched/46333

Metoo has done a lot of good, but it's pretty much off the rails at the moment.

This article describes it pretty well: www.sortalexout.com/writing/even-if-metoo

denisovich I'm not sure you've read the thread which is a collation of the various failures/ failings of child protection and safeguarding frameworks in the UK.

today's Times article: 'Misogyny is a gateway belief, justifying abuse' Heather Brooke

concludes:
"Let’s be clear: it’s not the law on hate speech that is at issue here, it’s the addition of misogyny. This is a challenge to patriarchy itself, an ideology and political system that divides society into two groups: adult men and everyone else, where everyone else is of lesser value.

To reduce misogyny to mere wolf-whistling is exactly the kind of minimisation and rationalisation we’ve seen in attempts to reduce the MeToo revelations of serious sexual assault, even rape, to “knee touching”, or devastating sexual harassment in the workplace to “banter”.

Misogyny is the gateway belief justifying domination, entitlement and, in too many cases, abuse and violence. Anyone claiming they are in favour of law and order needs to take misogyny seriously. Turning a blind eye to the systemic abuse of women is not making anyone safer.

For too long women have been victims of a most virulent form of hate. It is only in the past few years that crimes against women and children have been talked about and taken seriously. Action and accountability against perpetrators is still a rarity. Sara Thornton and Cressida Dick are on the wrong side of history if they think they can tackle violent crime without taking misogyny seriously."

www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/comment/misogyny-is-a-gateway-belief-justifying-abuse-ghdpmvzs5

is discussed on this thread:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3414658-Times-article-Misogyny-is-a-gateway-belief-justifying-abuse-Heather-Brooke

Can I just say how important this thread is for recording all these safeguarding failures all in one place. Thanks R0wantrees, Red, and anyone else who contributes.

and for you all

TIMES INVESTIGATION by Paul Morgan-Bentley,

'Gagging clauses: Chris Grayling silenced justice charities'
(extract)
"After Chris Grayling oversaw a £3 billion overhaul of the probation system in 2015, his reforms were condemned as a failure.

Prison inspectors found that changes introduced when he was justice secretary resulted in criminals being released without anywhere to live and without staff assessing “significant risks” to their partners and children.

Dame Glenys Stacey, chief inspector of probation, said the overhaul meant there was “no real prospect” of preventing prisoners from returning to crime.

The findings prompted criticism from campaigners, politicians and probation staff. Some of the key charities working with former prisoners, however, have appeared to be unconcerned.

Change, Grow, Live (CGL) is one of the largest charities in Britain, with an income of almost £200 million a year. It works on prisoner rehabilitation and has published 71 news updates on its website since June 2017, when Dame Glenys’s report was released, but none mention the probation crisis.

The charity has also published 9,800 tweets but referred to Mr Grayling only three times and only to promote announcements he had made.

As The Times reveals today, CGL is one of at least 40 charities that have been gagged by government contracts.

Four years ago the organisation formed a partnership with St Giles Trust, another charity, and Ingeus UK, a private company, to manage Mr Grayling’s reformed probation service across the Midlands. Their Reducing Reoffending Partnership (RRP) was chosen to run two of 21 new community rehabilitation companies that were handed responsibility for overseeing all but the most serious offenders.

RRP’s contracts, which were worth £379.4 million, stated that the group must provide the services while “having regard to the standing and reputation” of the justice secretary. It also had to agree not to do anything that would “attract adverse publicity” to Mr Grayling, damage his reputation or harm the confidence of the public in him. Under the Ministry of Justice’s (MoJ) probation reforms, all contractors and subcontractors had to agree the same terms for seven years from February 2015. Analysis by The Times has found that at least 29 charities are affected.

Charities appear to have adhered to the terms of their deals to varying degrees. Last year the justice select committee held an inquiry into the new probation system and found it to be a “mess” that was unlikely ever to work" (continues)

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/4ad3a7b8-e20f-11e8-9838-efa7e96cbe2b