Speech to South Yorkshire Victims’ Services Event – 9 December
**Check against delivery version**
Thank you for inviting me to your showcase event - it’s a pleasure to come back and see a few familiar faces.
As you will be aware, my role as Victims’ Commissioner for England and Wales means that I hear from many victims about what they want from services they come into contact with. And it is important that we listen to this, even more so in the coming weeks and months.
We are hearing every day about the large number of victims of non-recent sexual abuse who have found the bravery to come forward and report the awful crimes they have suffered.
I must praise the courage of Andy Woodward and others who have come forward so far, waiving their right to anonymity in the hope that it will give others the strength to follow their lead. Indeed this has led to so many more victims coming forward to report their experiences.
And this isn’t just about victims in football clubs, or sports clubs, but victims who have experienced abuse in all walks of life.
Like so many of you, I have been shocked by the scale of the abuse perpetrated against these victims. What is more upsetting is to learn how so many victims have hidden what had happened to them, for fear of not being believed.
To me these points raise two major questions. How could this abuse be perpetrated on such a scale and yet only now highlight the levels of abuse?
The second question is why victims did not feel able to come forward and tell anyone of their suffering sooner?
Is it because they did not feel that they would be believed? Is it because they felt they could not cope with the risk that their story would be dismissed out of hand? Victims of sexual abuse will not have visible scars; their scars lie below the surface but are every bit as painful.
In recent years, we have seen a conscious decision by many authorities to change their approach to victims of sexual abuse. This has led to a climate where victims are able to report the crimes they have suffered, in an environment where they feel safe, and most importantly feel believed.
The police especially, have made great strides in changing the way they deal victims and survivors of sexual abuse. One of the most important changes is that they ensure victims are listened to and that their accounts are believed.
If these strides had not been made, would victims be coming forward today?
With this in mind, Sir Richard Henriques’ recent report about the Metropolitan Police’s handling of a number of non-recent sexual abuse cases, gives me serious cause for concern.
He argues that the police should start from a position where victims are not believed when they report a crime, and that the police should be impartial, so they can conduct unbiased investigations.
He also argues that when such allegations are made, the person making the claims should be referred to as a “complainant” and not as a “victim”.
I believe that if these recommendations are accepted, the police will be taking a significant step backwards, undoing much of the progress made to give victims the confidence to come forward.
By the very nature of the crime, victims of sexual violence and abuse may find it more difficult to come forward and report what has happened to them. By creating a position where a police officer isn’t able to see credibility in a victim’s account, trust and confidence will be broken down.
We cannot risk going back to a position where victims have little or no confidence that they will be believed. This is exactly what has happened in the world of football, but also in care homes, in social service arrangements, in so many other areas of our society. Many victims were abused, but didn’t come forward because they didn’t think they would be believed.
We have heard only this week from the National Association of People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC) that they are inundated with victims contacting them. For several victims, they are only telling someone for the first time about the abuse they have suffered. I know that not all victims who have experienced such atrocious events, will report them to the police, but for those that do, I cannot stress enough how important it is that they are believed.
Belief and acceptance of the events a victim has experienced, makes up a huge part of helping a victim towards recovery. And this is something I will touch on in more detail later in my speech.
An important part of this is for victims to know that they aren’t ‘complainants’ – I simply cannot understand this terminology. Victims of crime, any crime, whether they have visible scars or not, are just that – victims. They do not become victims only at the point when a perpetrator is convicted.
They have not asked for the crime to be committed. Nor are they asking for a complaint to be resolved. It is the State that brings a case against a suspect, and it is the State who brings an offender to justice.
I recognise the challenges that this brings to the police who, at the moment, are expected to believe a victim who reports a crime, whilst investigating the claim without prejudice.
But I do believe that good policing delivers justice – justice in ensuring that guilty individuals are convicted and justice for victims to feel able to come forward. And we need our police to deliver both.
My visits to victim services across the country tell me that on the ground services are struggling to cope as large numbers of victims and survivors find the courage to come forward and ask for help.
National provision of services for victims
So, what is important in any victim service is that the service recognises the victim and their individual and specific needs. In my role, I meet with Police and Crime Commissioners and their dedicated staff. The main thing that strikes me, as I travel the length and breadth of the country, is that there is no single approach taken by PCCs, and this is fine. Victims themselves are all different and all have different needs.
I know that PCCs are increasingly looking at victims’ needs but this has to be built on to better understand local communities and the needs of victims living in those communities.
Here in South Yorkshire, you have had to deal with some high profile and complex issues. Issues such as large scale child sexual exploitation have meant that you have had to address some stark and unprecedented matters. I know this will have been difficult, and I know you have done all you can to help support the many victims who have come forward.
One of my priorities as Victim Commissioner is to see a better joining up of services for victims. Many victims, including those who have been sexually abused or exploited, have complex needs; their needs will most likely be inter-twined with serious issues hindering their recovery.
Some will need emotional support to help them overcome and recover from the trauma they have suffered. Others will require more practical help, such as with housing, or finances.
Some victims need help to overcome substance mis-use, or may need greater intervention from health services. These more complex needs should be recognised at the earliest point, by those who provide victim services.
Many victims recognise they need more help, but they don’t know where to turn to find this support.
This is why I want to talk to you about a piece of work I published earlier this year: ‘What Works in Supporting Victims of Crime’. This international assessment highlighted evidence that 4 main principles should be implemented by organisations supporting victims to best support them. These were:
i) multi-agency support and co-ordination
ii) effective information
iii) procedural justice – for victims to know that they are receiving fair treatment
iv) a professionalised single point of contact
This approach ensures that victims of crime can be properly supported so that they are helped to cope and recover at their pace.
The work of all the PCCs around the country is so important in helping this vision to be achieved. It will take every single one of us to put that saying of the ‘victim being at the heart of the criminal justice system’ into reality. By doing this we can help a victim to be brought back to a healthy place – a place they can move forward to recovery.
I want to make sure that victims have a more joined up service, one that is focused at addressing their needs. How can we together make sure victims are able to receive services which are always focused on their rehabilitation and their road to recovery? I believe the answer lies partly in multi-agency working and co-ordination, and what some call a single point of contact. I’m calling them a victim’s adviser.
During my travels across the country I have seen examples of how victims are treated as individuals and not just as case files. This has been excellent to hear. The victims I have met so far have also reflected this.
This individual-focused approach appears to help victims towards recovery, and help them move forward. One victim of sexual and domestic abuse I met during my visits particularly stands out.
She had been sexually abused as a child, and when she met her husband, who also abused and manipulated her. He committed some truly horrendous acts against her, which had left this lady so damaged and traumatised. She found the courage to report him. Unfortunately, her early criminal justice experience proved to be just as horrific. The first police responders were male, and didn’t understand how she could have let some of the things she had described, happen – they made her feel that she wasn’t believed. Fortunately, the senior investigating officer understood better what she needed. This officer also put the victim in touch with the local Independent Sexual Violence Service where the victim was provided with a dedicated adviser, an ISVA.
The victim’s account of how she had been helped by this ISVA was truly commendable and so inspiring. The victim had been so lifted by the ISVA’s help, that she gained confidence to carry on with the criminal justice process, after originally feeling so dejected. She was referred to appropriate counselling and mental health services. She found strength and determination to go back to her career, something which she had left, when she married.
I have to say, meeting victims such as this lady, are why I am not keen on measures which look at how many victims have received ‘x’ or ‘y’ services. This is why I continuously highlight the need for victims’ services to be monitored and evaluated, and measured on victims’ progress and satisfaction.
The only way that we can know if we have the right services in place for victims, is if we know how they have responded to the help provided, and if they have recovered from the crime. The lady I have just spoken about is a real reminder to us all about how victims’ services need to be focused at delivering what is right for the individual. There are some good things happening around the country, but we together need to make this the norm, and not the exception.
Compliance Reviews
I have undertaken a series of compliance reviews looking at various aspects of the Victims’ Code. My reports all highlight key findings and recommendations which are shared with Ministers, PCCs and heads of criminal justice agencies.
My first review about complaints highlighted a gap between what agencies said they were doing and what victims were experiencing. This gap was not so much about agencies’ policies and procedures, but, more about how these procedures were applied. In other words, it was the quality of the interaction between staff and victims that made the most difference to how victims felt they had been treated.
This review identified a key theme, which has become an issue in all the other reviews I have carried out so far. Staff interaction holds an important value for victims of crime.
In my review of the Victim Personal Statement (or VPS), we found that most victims didn’t recall being offered the opportunity to make a statement. And, where they were, there were very often problems with how it was explained to them, and what would happen if a VPS was made.
Our findings also revealed that victims received inconsistent information about the VPS, mainly because many criminal justice agency staff weren’t themselves informed enough about the process. This meant that their interaction with victims couldn’t be of the best quality.
My two Restorative Justice reviews, published this year found victims weren’t being made aware of their entitlement to participate in RJ. Criminal justice practitioners were not informed enough about the processes available, and so weren’t always able to effectively communicate with victims. Victims’ feedback highlighted that services aren’t properly explained to them, and most importantly, victims aren’t being informed about key issues when they need to be.
VC Plans for 2016-17 and beyond
Looking ahead, one of the keys pieces of work I want to focus on is how together; we can provide a truly victim-focused service. My ‘What Works in Supporting Victims of Crime’ review has been instrumental in helping me set the direction in how this can be achieved.
My own experiences and that of many victims I’ve met have revealed that victims’ services still have some way to go to deliver a good quality victim service.
The criminal justice system can be frightening and confusing for victims – it certainly was for us as a family. And many of the victims I meet now, say they experience similar issues. Despite my experiences being from some time ago, they are still very real for today’s victims. Some examples include: