Survey asked 400 survivors to rate support services and fewer than half said they feel listened to, believed or respected

One of the biggest surveys of child sexual abuse survivors in the UK has revealed a shocking failure in the NHS and local authorities, with fewer than half of those who used hospitals or social services feeling they were listened to, believed or respected.

The independent survey of nearly 400 child sexual abuse survivors found social services and A&E lacked really basic, essential criteria to support vulnerable children and had not improved in 40 years.

Prof Noel Smith from the University Campus Suffolk, who led the research, described the findings as important and disturbing. He said: “It’s shocking because survivors are basing their views about poor service on these really basic, essential criteria about being listened to, believed and respected.

“You can imagine how if someone is finding it hard to disclose – they’ve been told all their life they’re not going to be listened to – and when they do get help they feel they’re not being believed, that clearly compounds the issues they’re going to have.”

The study, carried out with the charity Survivors in Transition, is believed to be among the most comprehensive surveys of victims’ experiences of support services in the UK.



Survivors were asked to rate support services – including voluntary groups, GPs, A&E and social services – on the basis of three criteria: whether they felt listened to, believed and respected.



The police, A&E and social services were ranked the worst. Two-thirds of those who used social services described it as either “poor” or “very poor”, with half of those who had attended A&E describing the service as “poor” or “very poor”. Overall, less than half of those who used social services or A&E and hospital services felt they had been listened to, believed or respected.

One child sexual abuse victim quoted in the study said: “In the NHS services I have experienced – four or five different psychotherapists – I have not felt supported or believed and it was suggested I was lying. Almost as demoralising as the abuse and rape.”

The best-rated support service was independent sexual violence advisors (ISVAs), who are usually based in sexual assault referral centres or in voluntary projects. Of those surveyed, 67% rated ISVAs as “very good” and 46% rated sexual assault referral centres as “very good”.

The study found a sharp contrast between survivors’ rating of statutory services compared to voluntary bodies. Among survivors who had used both sectors, more than 70% were more satisfied with voluntary sector services.

It also found that satisfaction with services had not improved over the past 40 years – despite growing societal awareness about child grooming.

Of those surveyed, 70% said they were abused as children by family members, with the abuse lasting on average for seven years. More than 30% said they continued to be abused after reporting it to a statutory service, such as a GP, social worker, doctor or teacher.



The academics behind the report urged GPs, social services and doctors to ask vulnerable children directly whether they had been sexually abused. According to the survey, more than 80% of survivors had to proactively disclose what had happened to them – an experience many found as traumatic as the abuse itself.

The survey results mirror the conclusions of an inquiry by MPs into the Rotherham and Rochdale child exploitation scandals, which found that local authorities had a woeful lack of professional curiosity when dealing with vulnerable children.

Abuse in Rochdale: brutality meets a blind eye Read more

“It may have happened to me 17 years before, but the day I came out with it I felt like I’d been raped,” said Doug, 33, who spoke to the Guardian on condition of anonymity. “It felt like I’d gone back to that day and all the pain, all the trauma, all the agony and all the things I’d buried.”



The study found 42% of survivors did not use support services until long after they first disclosed their abuse, with many not receiving help until an average of 12 years later. More than half of respondents waited at least nine years.

Smith said doctors, GPs and other professionals were still far behind when it came to acknowledging the current prevalence of child sexual abuse. “As a society we find it really difficult to accept that most abuse happens within the family, and although there’s some latent knowledge about abuse happening within families, most professionals don’t really appreciate the prevalence of it,” he said.

“We’re still far behind. We’re still not engaging with the fact that everyday, typical abuse is right under professionals’ noses.”

A Department of Health spokeswoman highlighted that the Ministry of Justice was providing £7m this year to support services helping child sexual abuse victims. A separate Home Office fund of £4.8m was distributed to victim support organisations earlier this year, in part due to a huge increase in demand from Justice Lowell Goddard’s independent inquiry into child sexual abuse.

The findings are due to be published on Wednesday at a University Campus Suffolk conference attended by police chiefs, child protection bosses and Kate Davies, the head of Public Health England.

‘It was a horrific experience – I just wanted it to be over’

Last year, Jane, 45, summoned the courage to revisit the darkest chapter of her life. It wasn’t the first time she had reported that she was sexually abused by her grandfather. The first time was 30 years ago, when she was a teenager. But it didn’t go well.

In 1985 Jane went to her local hospital’s sexual health department, concerned that she might have a sexually transmitted infection. To her horror, the consultant that day happened to be elderly and male – triggering terrifying flashbacks of her abusive grandfather.

Jane says: “I was very tense and reticent to be examined. Because of my history that was a massive ordeal for me. The consultant got really bad-tempered and said, ‘What are you messing about for?’ I disclosed that my grandad had sexually abused me. He basically carried on the examination. It felt like it was happening again. It was a horrific experience – I just wanted it over.”

After the hospital visit, Jane went home without any offer of follow-up support: “Social workers should have been called. I should have been brought home. My parents should have been involved. I should have been offered specialist support.”

‘I was just left alone with this in my head’

Doug, 33, was sexually abused by a man he met at a church festival when he was 13. He waited until he was 29 to seek help after battling alcohol and drug addictions for years.

“About three or four weeks after I came out with it I tried to jump in front of a train,” he says. “Two days later my mum took me to A&E and they basically said, ‘You’re not mental. You’ve had a trauma. We’ll put you on to the right people.’ That was it. I was just left alone with this in my head.”

Doug says he was passed from pillar to post by the NHS. He was treated for addiction problems and for a mental breakdown, but not the sexual abuse he suffered as a child: “If I was a child and I came out with it as a child then the whole world would be on their backs, but as soon as you become an adult, it’s like you’ve missed your chance.”