𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Councils and health trusts hid behind privacy laws to avoid sharing crucial intelligence that could have protected girls from grooming gangs, it has been claimed.

Dame Louise Casey told MPs organisations “often use” privacy “safeguards” to “protect our own agency interest”.

She declared the “sharing of data is probably easier now” than at any point over the past decades.

So little data was shared between organisations, staff would have to show crucial pieces of information on their laptop screens in physical meetings, rather than sending electronic copies.

Dame Louise warned that detectives were missing out on “critical” pieces of intelligence which councils, schools or health chiefs may have already had.

The scathing report into the grooming gangs scandal added: “Information and data from safeguarding partners is vital to build a local picture of risk and threat.”

Dame Louise told the Home Affairs Select Committee: “There’s no reason, technically, to make that difficult anymore. The sharing of data is probably easier now than at any point in my entire career.

“It is not expensive.

“It is just getting the safeguards around privacy right. But I think we often use the safeguards around privacy to protect our own agency interest and not share data.”

Dame Louise’s report revealed: “During this audit, and in multiple reviews and reports, we have repeatedly seen the vital role health workers and managers play in supporting and safeguarding children and, where needed, assisting in the prosecution of perpetrators of child sexual exploitation.

“Their impact cannot be underestimated.

“We should not be putting professionals in a situation where they worry about sharing information that might affect the safety of a child, but it seems clear that many practitioners fear just that.

“Some in the medical profession and the leadership of the health service should step in to end this ‘ambivalence’.

“In too many circumstances, identified in too many inquiries and reviews, too many children are not identified and helped, even when they are in health care settings.

“However, the cultural reluctance to share information as can be seen in the above examples, is as powerful as perceived legal impediments and will need to be addressed if these provisions are to have the transformative impact that is needed.”

In her 200-page report, Baroness Casey accused officials of being in “denial” about the scale of the grooming gangs problem and said lessons had not been learnt from crimes committed in Rotherham a decade ago.

It disclosed that asylum seekers and foreign nationals have been involved in a “significant proportion” of live police investigations.

And she admitted “victims and survivors are really angry that things haven’t changed”.

“I don’t think they feel confident in what’s going on at the moment,” she said.

“When children are small, we as a state have eyes on them,” she said. Casey outlines how these children were failed by the state because the suspects were not “doubled down” on.

Baroness Casey declared public institutions must overhaul how children are seen and treated by officials.

Dame Louise confirmed that grooming gangs are still abusing young girls and stressed ministers should take urgent action.

She told the Home Affairs Select Committee: “We’ve had, to quote colleagues from the police, we are awash with online harm and online exploitation.

“We’ve had the growth in county lines and child criminal exploitation, at the same time I don’t think child sexual abuse has gone away.

“From the evidence we saw in the audit and the visits we undertook to some police forces, it is clear it is still happening.

“We have to really get a grip of how we treat children.

“This dates back to Rotherham, where I listened to the testimony of a young woman.

“She was a child at the time. She was multiple raped, by multiple men on multiple occasions as a 13^th birthday present in the knowledge that her perpetrators said it would not be seen as rape, which she believed.”

Baroness Casey also suggested a timeline of three years for the national inquiry.

She said: “We’ve suggested three years, certainly initially, but certainly, I think you should be thinking getting the national and local bit done within three years.

“It’s partly why we’re looking for flexibility about the inquiry model, and looking [at] perhaps a team effort rather than a single individual running hearings.

“We’re of the view this is achievable, I just think we need some creative thinking from colleagues in the civil service to help make it happen.”

She also urged for local areas to “think carefully” about not being open to scrutiny and to change.

The crossbench peer told MPs she understands other than Oldham “nobody came forward” to take part in five local inquiries announced in January.