Following Cass, it's time for a Public Inquiry

[2fallsfromSSA]

Following the publication of Cass, surely it is now time for a public inquiry into current systemic child safeguarding failures in the whole of the UK?

SSA have today written to Rishi Sunk calling for a Public Inquiry into regulatory capture in the education sector and safeguarding failures in schools. You can see a copy of our letter here: x.com/SafeSchools_UK/status/1780311849902248091

Our position is that whilst the review is welcome it must be the beginning of accountability, not the end. If you agree then please write to your own MPs - there is a template letter here: https://safeschoolsallianceuk.net/resources-2/letter-templates/

What I put in my original response.

I don’t have much faith in public inquiries. They’re slow and monolithic and the findings often given lip service but are then ignored or waved away as being no longer relevant because things have moved on.

I’m not against one particularly, they do sometimes have findings that can be pointed to regarding other issues, so one focused on institutional capture could be useful for a lot of people down the line. But it’s not my priority now as it will get in the way of more immediate action to reverse some of the unreasonable decisions that have been made over the last 10 years.

I'm not sure you fully understand the extent of what we are dealing with here.

You say - "it's time for action ... We need shorter more targeted investigations that will end to more action faster on things like single sex spaces, Trans women in women’s prisons, Trans women in women’s sport, Adult trans health services, etc. After we’ve stemmed the tide a Public Inquiry into the institutional capture might be a sound idea."

All of this action has been happening in an organised fashion for the last 7 or so years and for many years before that by individual women. There are so many groups already taking action to overturn policy, shed light and restore safeguarding. This action remains crucial but people will only ever get so far because time and time again you get thwarted because of institutional capture.

I know we've been beaten back by institutional capture, but the work that's been done has seen progress and I think there is a head of steam that we can take advantage of. I think we need to keep going, building on recent successes and on the development of pro-sex class organizations and networks that have begun to appear and are building a good foundation that allows people to challenge the genderist orthodoxy.

I disagree with you about how effective a public inquiry is likely to be and think pushing for it will take up resources better focused elsewhere and that if it goes ahead soon it will result in heel dragging within institutions challenged to change as they claim to be waiting for the results.

I'm not sure the two are mutually exclusive are they? All of the pushback can happen at the same time as a public inquiry. An inquiry would not stop parents challenging their schools or all the work going into sports, prisons, etc. But if you've ever tried to challenge your school or local authority you will know how difficult it is because of wide scale capture. This became apparent to me 6 years ago after leaving a meeting with OCC children's services and the safeguarding board. And that capture is strategic and deliberate to undermine child safeguarding.

So I agree to keep pressing on with action but I'm not sure that has to be instead of not as well as a public inquiry.

I'm struggling to understand the logic of not having an inquiry given that 9000 children here have been affected by irreversible medication based on no scientific evidence.

I don't think analogies are helpful and I do feel uncomfortable making this one. Savile abused 450, 328 were children. The analogy is that he manipulated and captured multiple institutions to access children to abuse. Including the bbc. Who are still not covering this much. We were allowed one day it seems.

That was one person. Whilst many people probably do think and believe they're doing right by these children, we do know that there are links to people who wish to abuse via some of the evidence people like Gluck have found, linking fetish sites to WPATH (eunuch gender.) The institutional capture is very evident. And many other examples of adults who use the T to access children.

Institutional capture is not safe for children. It will not suddenly disappear. WPATH have hardened their stance. Cass maintains that there are instances where a child may well transition.

I am chilled to the bone re reading the we're still here conference notes. People treating children were in the same room as MPs and individuals who've written books about sadomaschistic porn.

We give all the barrels we have got in all avenues here.

Thread for reference.

There are some notable updates at the end.

We’re Still Here Conference 8th September: A report from the inside www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3398737-We-re-Still-Here-Conference-8th-September-A-report-from-the-inside

We seem to be entering a period of time where tried and tested methods of determining important things such as what are effective treatments, how to keep children safe or how to treat people fairly are breaking down.

I don’t think this is a new thing. The medical profession do not have a good track record of keeping children safe or always following evidence based medicine.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-68831061

That case has been absolutely horrific.

New or the norm the only way to ensure these things don't happen again is to have major reviews and inquiries. Use the system that's there.

It's also clear that people aren't very good at transferring learning from one context to another.

I think this captures it well. What is the logic in knowing what we know, but not seeking to open it up for full examination? There is none.

You could go further. Knowing what we know and not dissecting it, is actively leaving children at risk.

We cannot know all this, and leave it like this. It must progress to the next stage.

My logic is that while there would be no harm in an inquiry and there would certainly be a few useful things that come out of it, it shouldn’t be a priority now. Fighting for one now would be a poor use of resources. They take too long and are frequently out of date by the time they finish.

The Contaminated Blood Public Inquiry mentioned up thread was announced 7 years ago and hasn’t reported yet (currently due in May, but it’s been postponed before). In that time The Haemophillia Society estimates at least 650 victims of the scandal have died, along with several of the main players.

The focus should be on changing things now, not in 10 years time. We should focus on getting more targeted investigations like the Cass report.

This.

I have some experience of how infiltrated this kind of group is. Often set up and run by militant parents of 'trans' children, more often to not FTM.

Some are authors of leading books on AP for autistic children, some host facebook groups.

Any resistance or questioning on the part of members of these groups is met with calling out for 'bigotry' and loss of access to resources for the members.

I know because I was barred from a group whose primary motive was to assist parents of autistic school refusers with getting funded AP from Local Authorities. My crime was questioning the fact that the group was platforming seminars which were pro -transing autistic children who are gender non - conforming.

It is going to take A LOT of unpicking.

@lifeturnsonadime that is absolutely horrific. And an example of exactly how deep the rot is around the children who are now known to be most vulnerable to this ideological form of conversion therapy.

I'm also now seeing it as a type of medical "conversion" or "cure" for autistic people; act in a gender non conforming way and we will make you fit into that sex role medically.

James Esse has shared a letter with 130 professionals and public figures asking for a public inquiry.

Many are clinicians

x.com/jamesesses/status/1781760300825342416?s=46&t=A2fpFNgDRyXF2d6ye97wEA

This is just appalling. What is wrong with these parents??

Readable article by Jo Bartosch that lays it all out

https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/04/21/the-long-hard-road-to-cass/

Yes agree we need a public inquiry to stop it happening again to institutions but I think there will be huge resistance to doing that because it’s been so deeply and unquestioningly entrenched by so many particularly in politics and government and public bodies.

Perhaps a quicker, high profile (but restricted to more limited focused topics) form of scrutiny could be a Parliamentary select committee inquiry- that would have a public call for evidence and it could also recommend that a more wide ranging public inquiry is launched which adds weight.

However with the general election due any time soon thanks to the 5 year fixed term Parliaments, that like a lot of other things for UK parliament for months now, would seem impossible for MPs to actually get going, until the next government is in. Whichever party that may be.

The Cass report is a wonderful start and I feel very grateful for it on behalf of children and young people for its sensible conclusions. But turning this entire oil tanker around as many women on here have said before, is going to be slow work and something we’ll have to continue to campaign on for decades to come in future. Even just as far as making sure Cass’ recommendations are followed appropriately. Let alone all the other issues.

There are still a lot of people who feel very personally invested in promoting men’s sexual rights and sexual access to other people who will be continuing with that campaign. We’re still living in very misogynistic times and safeguarding is still far too low on the agenda. Let’s raise this with election candidates and see how all this looks with a new government.

Excellent summary of the history!
Thanks Cake

I'm happy to call for a public inquiry and think the scale of this 'emporer's new clothes' capture merits it, but the TOR need to be extremely carefully designed so as not to prevent real action on the ground in schools, prisons, police, NHS etc.

In the past the existence of inquiries have resulted in a lack of criminal action as far as i can tell e.g. post office enquiry where everyone is all 'we have to wait for the enquiry'. Why? The subpostmasters had hundreds of thousands of pounds literally stolen from them (funnelled into profits and bonuses for the likes of Vennells) and were wrongly convicted. These are criminal acts, why aren't the police prosecuting individuals? There's plenty of evidence.

We definitely need to avoid that. Doctors who have committed medical malpractice need to face criminal charges. Teachers who have breached KCSIE and safeguarding duties should face sanctions or criminal charges. It shouldn't be left to individual parents to do this, ideally, but we really don't want a position where an inquiry is used as a reason to deny justice to individuals and I could see that happening (as with the Post Office).

I still think the most significant gains are going to be from individual court cases for the forseeable future: Forstater, Bailey, Phoenix, Meade, Roz A, Fahmy, Bell. All these wonderful women have given ALL women and children (in the case of Rachel Meade and Kiera Bell) greater protections via legal judgements.

Yes I agree with you Dumbledores about these incredibly important legal cases

I totally agree that the ToR would need to be very carefully written and they need to come from a SG angle.

A public inquiry is well overdue - we were raising issues about significant institutional capture 5 years ago when we launched by exposing safeguarding failures at the NSPCC. Now we see whistle blowers brave enough to come forward. However so much harm has been done to children by those whose job it is to protect children. If that doesn't merit an inquiry I don't know what does.

Talking of the NSPCC

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/21/nspcc-whistleblower-quits-charity-trans-grooming-row-claims/

https://archive.ph/iJMla bypass the paywall

I'd just read the previous post then found this article in the Telegraph. The Charity Commission have closed their investigation into Childline.

Thanks I meant to link to the article. Yes the charities commission has also failed dismally to address concerns about safeguarding.

if you were in any doubt about the need for an enquiry, then the rubbishing and dismissal of Cass, both personally and her report, is an object lesson in the depth and reach of capture by the Crazy gang. And this cannot be ignored as random Twitler youth when government ministers such as Patrick Harvie pile on as well (personally I wouldn't leave Harvie in charge of a market stall, let alone government ministerial position-even after checking his hard drive). This is the beginning of the end but shifting these nutters is going to be like the milk back out of a cup of coffee-difficult and lengthy.

SSA have been really important in shifting the debate around safeguarding in schools - pointing out the obvious, horrendous safeguarding failures around gender ideology and the exceptionalism applied. Thanks to you @2fallsfromSSA and all your team.

It's a shame that those who are actually paid to safeguard children properly have so often failed. I'd start with Keegan at DfE, the DBS service (whatever you think of Kevin Lister there is no way he should have been DBS barred), and go from there.

What I'd really like to see is some criminal accountability and losing of jobs.