The Home Office has asked teachers, heads and school staff for their views on a proposed legal requirement to report child sexual abuse.
The government’s new consultation asks anyone who works with children, including those in education settings, to feedback on proposals from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) to introduce a mandatory reporting duty.
The Home Office had previously run a consultation regarding this from May to August this year, where respondents were asked to give their views on several aspects of the recommendations, such as the scope of the duty and the consequences.
This new consultation, which runs from 2 November to 30 November, sets out the government’s proposals for the duty based on those responses, and asks respondents to give their views in detail on the proposals.
Among its proposals, the government wants views on whether the mandatory reporting duty should apply to anyone taking “regulated activity in relation to children”, and that organisations such as schools that “engage with children” should ensure staff are notified of the responsibility.
It is also proposing that reports should be made to local authority children’s services or police “as soon as reasonably practicable” and that failure to do so could result in teachers and other professionals being referred to the Disclosure and Barring Service “for barring consideration”.
Non-criminal sanctions
The Home Office said that detailed guidance will be set out on how the mandatory reporting duty will be implemented, how its effectiveness will be evaluated, and what training will be put in place before implementation.
The inquiry had recommended the mandatory reporting duty should include indicators of sexual abuse as well as disclosures and personally witnessed incidents, but the Home Office said feedback from the first consultation showed that recognising child sexual abuse may be difficult from a subjective assessment of indicators - especially for those without formal training.
The inquiry also recommended failing to report disclosures or witnessed incidents should be a criminal offence. The government is instead testing the idea of non-criminal sanctions as they “might provide more proportionate penalties”.
The duty would not include consensual peer relationships between 13- to 16-year-olds where there is no risk of harm present.
The government has also committed to allowing a “sufficient” amount of time to establish a referral process and for workforces affected by the duty to get appropriate training before the duty is introduced.
The impact of the duty will be evaluated after it has been in place for a “specified period”.
