Islington Council has paid out almost £1 million in the past ten months to victims of historic abuse in its children’s homes.
More than 180 complainants have come forward since last May, yielding a wealth of new intelligence about paedophiles who infiltrated the borough’s care system.
The support scheme was launched last year, more than three decades after whistleblowers first reported that Islington's care system had been "infiltrated by paedophiles".
“They are pouring it out,” said Dr Liz Davies, who has worked on many of the applications.
“They’ve been naming abusers. Serious assaults. Sexual assaults. Physical assaults. Crimes.”
In some cases, Dr Davies said, multiple complainants have named the same alleged abusers.
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“I’ve done a collation of all the children’s homes,” she explained.
“So if the police contact me and say somebody’s come forward making allegations about Mr So-and-so, I can say, ‘Ten other people have named him’.
“Then I can contact all those survivors and say, ‘This officer in this police station is investigating Mr So-and-so', to see if they would like to speak to them.”
Survivors
Dr Davies, an emeritus professor of social work at the London Metropolitan University, first raised the alarm about widespread abuse in the homes in 1990, whilst working as a social worker.
No large-scale police investigation has ever been mounted.
The Met Police would not comment for this article as to why.
Dr Davies now co-ordinates the Islington Survivors Network (ISN), a non-profit launched in 2016 to help victims access support, and “collate and publish the history of the Islington child abuse scandal”.
ISN also aims to help the authorities bring abusers to justice.
Since launching, it has been contacted by more than 600 complainants, as well as ex-staff offering witness testimony.
In 2017, the council finally admitted and apologised for the abuse. In 2021, it announced the Islington Support Payment Scheme.
Support Payments
The scheme, which opened in May 2022 and closes in May 2024, offers £10,000 payments to anyone abused in any of 42 children’s homes between 1966 and 1995.
“Abuse may be sexual, physical, emotional or neglect,” according to the 16-page form that applicants must complete.
The scheme covers 12 homes in Islington, plus other Islington-run homes in London, Essex and Hertfordshire.
It has received 181 applications. To date, 95 have been approved and paid out.
“No applications have been rejected,” the council said.
A number of successful claims will also be taken forward as individual civil suits, said Dr Davies.
“If they win, the £10,000 will come off the damages,” she explained.
Excluded
Three-quarters of all applications so far have been made through ISN, which was instrumental in getting the scheme set up.
Dr Davies said she had lost some battles, with those abused in foster care excluded from the scheme, as well as those abused in children’s homes before Islington became a London borough in 1965.
“So there were things that were not just,” she said.
“But in the end, because of time, we thought, we’ve got to run with what we’ve got now, to get people getting paid – because they’re dying. We’re losing them and they’re not getting the money.”
Dr Davies said the main issue she was experiencing now was waits of “up to six months” for claimants’ care files to be disclosed, then discovering that they are missing or incomplete.
The Rules
“Applicants do not need their childhood care records to apply for the scheme,” the council told the Gazette.
But the scheme does require “credible information and/or material” supporting a claim.
In some cases, said Dr Davies, missing files have been overcome by ex-staff providing witness statements confirming that they remember the applicants being in the homes.
The council confirmed that those still waiting for their care records when the scheme closes will not be excluded, as long as they have already applied for the scheme.
“All applications submitted before the scheme ends in May 2024 will be processed,” it said.
The Department for Work and Pensions has agreed that payments under the scheme will not be considered when calculating eligibility for benefits.
For more information on the scheme, including a full list of care homes covered, visit www.islington.gov.uk/survivorsupport
ISN can be reached at www.islingtonsurvivors.co.uk
The Met Police said anyone wishing to report non-recent abuse should do so by calling 101 or visiting www.met.police.uk/ro/ocr/how-to-report-a-crime/
"Your information will be passed to a specialist team who will work with you and support you," it said.
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