NEWS – Page 3 – Mandate Now

6 04, 2022

Mandate Now has updated its legislative proposal to: mandatory reporting of known and suspected child sexual abuse only

Mandate Now2022-04-06T11:42:12+01:00April 6th, 2022|

Mandate Now is an evidence led pressure group. For sometime we have been aware of the attendant risks of including physical abuse and neglect in our legislative objectives. Without evidence that clearly demonstrates physical abuse and neglect are positively addressed by the introduction of law, we have amended our objectives to mandatory reporting of suspected and known child sexual abuse only. The depth of evidence supporting the introduction of well-designed law applied to prescribed ‘Regulated Activities’ is significant. The key extract in our updated legislative proposal is here :

The revised proposal is here in full

Our submission to IICSA of 27.9.18 in advance of the MR seminars, revealed the direction of travel which today is crystallised in this update.

28 02, 2022

‘Detriment’ can be experienced by staff who report child abuse. Our updated legislative proposal for Mandatory Reporting addresses it.

Mandate Now2022-03-24T17:43:53+00:00February 28th, 2022|

From evidence given to IICSA , the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, the Hart Inquiry and the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, it is apparent that personnel working in Regulated Activities who do the right thing and adhere to discretionary ‘guidance’ and in some cases professional ‘expectation’ to report known or suspected child sexual abuse, often do so at great personal cost. We have heard of reporters being bullied, alienated from work colleagues, isolated and often forced out of the workplace through a variety of means including constructive dismissal.

To address this practice we took legal and academic advice and have updated our legislative proposal for the introduction of well-designed Mandatory Reporting by those employed in Regulated Activities such as teachers, sports coaches, clergy, healthcare personnel and many more.

The revised draft legislation can now be downloaded here.

For quick reference there are three new clauses to address ‘detriment’ which we feature below :

With mandated reporting of defined concerns supplemented by protection from ‘detriment’, our proposed legislation would put England and Wales on a par with the majority of jurisdictions in the rest of the world.

26 10, 2021

HoC Briefing Paper | ‘Child Protection: duties to report concerns’ | Our critical review of a flawed document

Mandate Now2022-07-15T17:50:15+01:00October 26th, 2021|

HoC Library asserts it’s a politically impartial research and information service for MPs and their staff. Yet serious questions arise with this briefing paper because it is based on incomplete research which omits evidence from other jurisdictions. These omissions cause the paper to provide an unintentionally misleading picture of this important subject.

Our review is here

5 10, 2021

Home Office: Tackling Child Sexual Abuse Strategy 2021 | No strategy, few proposals and little money

Mandate Now2022-05-12T14:31:47+01:00October 5th, 2021|

A claim repeated by Home Secretaries of all stripes

The critique uses our default two column format to highlight the many shortcomings in this ‘strategy’ document. It has the appearance of having been designed to assist government minimise/dismiss any meaningful recommendations IICSA might make in its final report, the big ticket item being mandatory reporting, This is expected in 2022.

Our critique is available here

21 07, 2021

Review of : “The Scale and nature of child abuse” by The Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse | Its value is limited

Mandate Now2021-07-21T09:29:28+01:00July 21st, 2021|

Before commenting on the report which was released on 9^th June 2021, it is necessary to make you aware that the ‘Centre of expertise on child sexual abuse’ is entirely funded by the Home Office which is trenchantly against the introduction of well-designed mandatory reporting of known and suspected child sexual abuse by those working in Regulated Activities (“RA”).

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13 06, 2021

Is safeguarding in sport fit for purpose? Our written submission to the House of Lords Sport and Recreation Committee

Mandate Now2022-05-02T09:13:37+01:00June 13th, 2021|

Our now published written evidence dated 24 May 2021 is available here for download.

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8 05, 2021

Boarding Schools’ Association says it wants Mandatory Reporting | (as long as it doesn’t work)

Mandate Now2022-03-23T14:17:16+00:00May 8th, 2021|

In recent weeks the Sunday Times has run a series of articles about non-recent sexual and physical abuse in boarding schools. The articles stemmed from Louis de Bernières going public about the abusive time he had while a pupil at Grenham House in Birchington, Kent.

Here’s the first article, the second and the most recent from 02.05.21 is below:

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11 11, 2020

Scotland : Child abuse victims are still going undetected || Yet Scottish academics still mistakenly reject mandatory reporting

Mandate Now2023-02-19T07:21:28+00:00November 11th, 2020|

On 22nd October 2020 an article by Dr Sarah Nelson of the Centre for Research for Families and Relationships appeared in The Scotsman.

The Scotsman 22.10.20. You can read the article here

The reader is informed :

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15 10, 2020

The Whyte Review – some considerations.

Mandate Now2023-06-17T19:24:48+01:00October 15th, 2020|

It is hoped the Whyte Review reveals abuses and safeguarding shortcomings within gymnastics and makes appropriate recommendations. That said it’s important to appreciate the limitations of such reviews. Unlike a statutory inquiry no clubs or coaches can be compelled to provide evidence. Recommendations Anne Whyte QC makes might or might not be adopted by the sports body in question. Those that are adopted then have to be delivered, sustained and enforced by the very organisations under whose umbrella the shortcomings occurred. We highlight some further challenges below and hope when it concludes that British Gymnastics will publish annual safeguarding data to evidence how the review has impacted safeguarding and to give parents of future gymnasts the confidence to enrol their children in the sport.

Here is some background …..

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3 08, 2020

Mandate Now observations on Law in Sport article about mandatory reporting for sport

Mandate Now2020-09-26T15:56:47+01:00August 3rd, 2020|

The Law In Sport article was published on 30th July 2020. Mandate Now was sent a link by a social media follower who correctly thought it would interest us. It’s author Richard Bush is an Associate in Bird & Bird’s Sports Group, We have interpolated our comments into his article below using this ‘comment’ format in italics. All photographs and sound files form part of our commentary.

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