Scandal prompts reform proposals

Press, 12 July 1988, Page 35

Scandal prompts reform proposals

By

HELENA WISNIEWSKI

NZPA London The release of a report on a child sex abuse crisis in northern England has led to Government proposals for reforming the handling of abuse cases. A detailed official report on the “Cleveland controversy” was published recently and was followed by an announcement from the House of Commons. The Minister of Health, Tony Newton, called for an Office of Child Protection to be established, with powers to investigate local authority applications in care proceedings. He proposed grants for training health workers be increased £7 million ($17.71 million), and for detailed guidance circulars to be published for all social workers, doctors and the police. The controversy that prompted the reforms began last year in the northeast city of Middlesbrough, when 121 children were diagnosed as sex abuse victims in five months.

The children were taken into care and separated from their families, usually on the basis of medical evidence supplied by two doctors at the heart of the inquiry. Both Dr Marietaa Higgs and her colleague, Dr Geoffrey White, used the technique of anal dilation

(R.A.D.) as virtual proof of the existence of anal abuse, the inquiry discovered.

The controversy was only brought to light when Cleveland social welfare authorities found they could not cope with the huge influx of “abused” children.

A 74-day official inquiry followed and in January work began on a report into the affair. In the 320page report, it was concluded that “terrible damage” had been done to some families whose children were wrongly taken away.

The two doctors had detected some genuine cases of anal abuse, it said, but some children had suffered unnecessary harm.

“There is plenty of evidence that Dr Higgs is a caring, competent, hardworking doctor with a particular expertise in the care of children. “(But) she was unwise to come to a firm conclusion rather than a strong suspicion on physical signs alone.”

Under the new changes proposed by the Minister of Health, parents will be able to appeal against protection orders in the future.

Full-scale new legislation will follow later this year to cut the length of separation between parents and their children when suspected victims are put in care.