Jay review outlines work ahead

The child abuse inquiry is not too broad in scope to succeed, its chair, Professor Alexis Jay, has concluded.

In her interim review on the beleaguered Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), Prof Jay declines to follow the recommendation in November of the Home Affairs Select Committee that the Inquiry be split in two—one part pursuing forensic and legal investigations, the other looking at thematic and compliance issues around child protection.

She concludes that the Inquiry’s three-strand approach of public hearings, research and analysis, and the “Truth Project”, is right but that its implementation has been too slow. Referring to suggestions that remit of the Inquiry is too broad to succeed, she says she believes “its scope is a virtue, allowing it to recommend fundamental changes beyond the reach of an inquiry with a narrower remit”.

Prof Jay says its commitment to exposing past failures in protecting children should remain unchanged, and that it should publish a regular timetable of its activity. She aims to hold four public hearings in 2017. The Inquiry will also review available evidence on the impact child sexual abuse has on victims and survivors, as children and into adulthood, after identifying gaps in the existing body of knowledge on the subject. It will conduct new research into how churches have implemented child protection policies in practice.

Richard Scorer, specialist abuse lawyer at Slater and Gordon, who represents 67 core participants, said: “The work of this inquiry has never been more important.

“We will have to wait to see how, in reality, [these] changes will impact on the ability of the inquiry to reach robust conclusions. The devil may be in the detail—we will need to understand how substantial the intended hearings are going to be.  

“But for the inquiry to fulfil its obligations to the many survivors of abuse, the inquiry has to carry out a robust examination—using its statutory powers to get hold of crucial documents and interrogate key decision makers under oath. Any watering down of that forensic approach would be a betrayal of victims.

"The child abuse inquiry in Australia is rapidly and effectively examining institutional failings and holding the powerful to account—proof positive that this can and should be done.”