Minister ‘clarifies’ violence against women and girls strategy after Sky News report

Child safety organisations have welcomed the government “thinking again” on including child abuse victims in its violence against women and girls strategy, following a Sky News report.

Jess Phillips, minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls (VAWG), has written to charities to tell them “children who experience child sexual abuse and exploitation are considered in the new VAWG strategy”.

In the letter, Ms Phillips says she hopes the letter “clarifies” the government’s position.

It comes after 10 organisations raised concerns with the government after Sky News published a “draft” Home Office document that said child sexual abuse and exploitation was not “explicitly” within the scope of the strategy.

Anna Edmunson, head of policy at the NSPCC, told Sky News: “We’re hopeful that the words in the minister’s letter shows that they are thinking again and making sure they can draw out the really clear links between tackling VAWG and tackling child sexual abuse.

“But the proof will be in the pudding – that’s why we want to see the final strategy.”

The strategy has been delayed and is expected to be published later in the autumn.

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“I am pleased to see the government has addressed the concerns we have raised,” Kerry Smith, chief executive of the Internet Watch Foundation, told Sky News.

“We are at the front line and see how girls bear the brunt of sexual violence on and offline. We now need to see the strategy itself published in full. The sooner it can become a reality, the better.”

Rape Crisis, which is the largest support service of its kind, welcomed what they call a “shift in position” from the government to “now acknowledging” that child victims of sexual abuse and exploitation will be included, adding what’s needed is “concrete commitments.”

An estimated half a million children are sexually abused in England and Wales every year.

Last month, Sky News spoke to Poppy Eyre, who was raped by her grandfather when she was four.

“VAWG is violence against women and girls. If you take child sexual abuse out of it, where are the girls?”, she said, reacting to the leaked draft document Sky News obtained.

The government insist that child sexual abuse will feature in the VAWG strategy, but victims and campaigners are concerned that it’s in danger of being siloed off into disparate plans, without falling under the VAWG umbrella.

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A Home Office spokesperson told Sky News it has “been clear throughout that action to tackle child sexual abuse has always been included in the upcoming VAWG strategy”.

The spokesperson said such crimes would be tackled “through a distinct and transformative workstream”, including acting upon the recommendations of the Casey review into grooming gangs and the Jay review into child sexual abuse.

Poppy Eyre said: “My message to the government is if you’re going to make child sexual abuse a separate thing, we need it now.”