Victims, survivors and abusees who are meant to be at the centre of the inquiry have been ignored by it for months thanks to a communications blackout. The exception was the pre-recess outline announcement on the 9th July.
This paucity of engagement with abusees by the IICSA about the progress of the inquiry has caused significant and unnecessary distress to many of those who are meant to be at the centre of it. This and other matters were mentioned in a letter to Mr Ben Emmerson, following a meeting with him on 8 May 14 at Millbank.
The meeting produced no change.
We provide the print exchanges below. What has become clear from the multiple communications several people known to us have had with the IICSA secretariat, is that the default among the Home Office personnel on secondment to IICSA is an unfamiliarity with the subject of the inquiry. We abusees might as well be widgets or some other inanimate object. Furthermore, there appears to be a disinclination by the executive (The Chair and the Panel) to address the important communications shortcomings. One would have to be living in a cave not to appreciate the havoc this failure has contributed to events since the beginning of the year. The Inquiry has also seen a media officer depart perhaps because he didn’t have a job to do or maybe he had been metaphorically locked in the stationery cupboard.
Additionally, have you noticed how the IICSA website has no social media links in stark contrast to the Royal Commission in Australia? This is in keeping with the Home Office website, and the sites of most other Government departments. But why for the IICSA which is independent of Government?
Following the meeting this letter was sent:
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To which this reply was received from Mr Emmerson:
Apart from the public statement on the 9th July 2015, the unsatisfactory status quo has been maintained.