NSPCC's child therapy warning
Councils and the NHS are not doing enough to help thousands of sexually-abused children get the therapy needed to recover from their ordeal, according to a report.
The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children said there was a postcode lottery of services for victims and current provision would need to expand fourfold to cope with a shortfall of places estimated at up to 88,000.
Researcher Debbie Allnock said many of the roughly-500 services identified in the report were so overstretched they were being forced to close their books.
But she said that despite the “devastating” consequences for children and young adults, the problem remained a “low priority within mainstream mental health services and among local authorities”.
The research found that provision was particularly patchy in rural areas of England, and that a gap existed between services for children referred via the child protection, and the kind of adult-oriented services for rape and sexual violence victims that teenagers often needed.
Among its recommendations were that social workers should follow the progress of children referred for therapy until their programmes conclude, rather than immediately “closing the case”.
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