In his book The Disappearance of Childhood, the American writer and educator Neil Postman wrote: ‘‘Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see.” Last week, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) published its damning investigation into children in care in Nottinghamshire. It gives gruelling details of how generations of children, living in a climate of fear, were horrendously abused by predatory carers in homes and foster families while Nottingham city council and Nottinghamshire county council, as well as police, social workers and the Crown Prosecution Service, repeatedly failed to act.

What can we learn from the messages these children send? How can decades of abuse occur, and why is so little invested in childhood?

In 1985, 400 children absconded from a Nottinghamshire home, including 70 girls who had “fled” more than once. In 1989, an internal investigation into a 14-year-old girl who had sex with a number of boys in a home, incredibly reported: “At no time did this take part against her will.” In one home, a 16-year-old sexual offender and suspected psychopath was placed in the same unit as an “inadequate” 11-year-old. One care worker had a conviction for grievous bodily harm. “We sort people out,” he said.

“You were almost made to feel they were objects,” reported another residential care worker of the fragile children in need of nurture and protection. Instead, they were beaten, raped – vaginally, orally and anally – and sexually assaulted, and when they sought help… “I was told to stop lying”; “I felt very alone … sick, dirty and ashamed.”

Sixteen residential staff and 10 foster carers have been imprisoned. Professor Alexis Jay, the inquiry chairwoman, said: “Despite decades of evidence and many reviews showing what needed to change, neither of the councils learned from their mistakes, meaning more children suffered unnecessarily.”

November marks the 30th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by 196 countries. Its 54 articles demand that we uphold the best interests of the child, right to life, children’s development and respect for their views. In the UK, the convention is still not incorporated into domestic law. As a result, we have no statutory duty for government to consider the impact on children of decision-making. We have no children’s minister in cabinet. Instead, last month Kemi Badenoch became the fifth children’s minister in four years, a junior appointment.

In the UK, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is still not incorporated into domestic law Yvonne Roberts

The report card on UK children living in what is an affluent country is pitiful: four million in poverty; a punishing benefits cap; poor housing; rising rates of mental ill health; inadequate funding for schools and childcare. The list goes on. And, as the IICSA’s investigation underlines, when children speak out, too often they are disbelieved and discredited. The police’s unequivocal response to claims of serial abuse by Carl Beech is not the norm.

The IICSA investigated Nottinghamshire councils not because the credibility of survivors had suddenly been validated but as a result of the number of allegations, then 350, now at 418. What triggered the disclosures is an extraordinary alliance between David Hollas MBE, a retired army lieutenant colonel, and two survivors of childhood abuse, Mickey Summers and Mandy Coupland, who persuaded others to come forward.

Hollas had met an ex-squaddie, a survivor from a children’s home, who was protesting in the street about his experiences. Five years ago, it prompted Hollas to campaign for a national inquiry. Council officials were obstructive but, with the support of others, the result is last week’s report. Advocacy and counselling for survivors are also now established, but shamefully the funding runs out next year.

In 2018, Jon Collins, then leader of Nottingham city council, said he would only apologise “when there is something to apologise for”. Apologies have now been made, however inadequate, but still, Hollas points out, accountability and punishment for profound neglect of duty is absent – as is so often the case (Rotherham, Rochdale, Islington). “It won’t stop until those happy to take the big bucks take the big fall,” he says.

The two councils have six months to conduct an independent evaluation of risk and provide an action plan. “Then what?” Hollas asks. The reply would be so much more convincing if it was anchored in a society in which children are believed and properly protected, and their rights robustly upheld.