Last week the report of the Board of Inquiry into historical child sexual abuse in Beaumaris Primary School and certain other government schools Report was published after being tabled in Victorian Parliament.  Recently we shared feedback on Recommendation 3, which appears to be of most concern. Today we share thoughts and feedback on recommendation 8 which addresses improving service responses. Important to what our petition has been asking the Victorian and Federal government to pilot in the Ballarat and Bayside Melbourne areas of Victoria for over two years now. Only the Federal Government has responded to our communications about this to-date. The link to the Beaumaris Board of Inquiry report follows.

https://www.beaumarisinquiry.vic.gov.au/report

Recommendation 8: A targeted program of work to improve service responses 

“The Board of Inquiry recommends the Victorian Government design and implement a targeted program of work to improve service responses to adult victim-survivors of child sexual abuse. This includes:

•  in consultation with victim-survivors, designing, developing and implementing a formal peer support program for adult victim-survivors of child sexual abuse
• in consultation with sexual assault support services and Sexual Assault Services Victoria, develop a consistent approach to how adult victim-survivors of child sexual abuse may access sexual assault support services in a timely way
• reviewing and updating public-facing information of sexual assault support services to grow awareness that services are available for and responsive to people of all genders.”

Summary of serious concerns with Recommendation 8

•  This recommendation has been written as if the Beaumaris Board of Inquiry operated in a total vacuum, that excluded having any knowledge of a legion of existing recommendations from the Royal Commission (Royal Commission) into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, and other commissions, inquiries, and research.
  A vacuum that excluded the extensive existing and ongoing engagement of survivors and families, and associated research into what helps survivors, their families and communities, heal and recover. Which includes existing and ongoing work being funded by the Federal Government.
  
  
• We know that the Beaumaris Board of Inquiry received several submissions, that included copies of existing recommendations the Victorian Government has failed to act on, or responded with ‘no action’ or accepting ‘in principle’ only. This included a copy of our petition, asking for the Government to pilot the full implementation of Recommendation 9.1 of the Royal Commission, which the Government had only accepted in principle.
  The latter meaning the Victorian Government acknowledges a recommendation is a good idea but reject the all-important ‘how’ and ‘what’ of how to implement change that achieves the outcomes the recommendation seeks.
  
  
• To give you an idea of the scale of the Victorian Government’s failure to action previous recommendations appropriately, the Government accepted ‘In principle’ only, 60% of the recommendations the Royal Commission made that applied to the Victorian Government to act on.
  We know that the Beaumaris Board of Inquiry also received well over a thousand pages and more of existing, relevant research.
  
  
• Despite this, recommendation 8 of the Beaumaris Board of Inquiry report reads as though the Victorian Government has to ‘start from scratch’ rather than working with existing knowledge, progress, stakeholder engagement and pilots.
  It also fails to acknowledge it needs to work with the Federal government, which has, and continues to fund significant engagement with survivors and families, and research into appropriate service responses.
  It also fails to acknowledge the opportunies to learn from existing relevant initiatives being piloted or are already implemented, elsewhere in Australia and overseas.
  
  
• Sexual Assault Services Australia said publically before the report was released,“
  Many recommendations from the important 2021 Victorian Law Reform Commission report still haven't been implemented. We hope there is a clear response to the Beaumaris Inquiry Report.”
  Sadly, that didn’t happen.
  
  
• We’re hearing from many in the community, that Sexual Assault Services’ response (link below) to the Beaumaris Board of Inquiry report, echoes their own. As indeed it does ours.
  https://www.sasvic.org.au/news/sasvic-response-beaumaris

“Sexual Assault Services Victoria (SASVic) is the peak body for Victoria’s 18 sexual assault services. SASVic made a formal submission to the Inquiry, attended the Inquiry, participated in the support services roundtable and met with Inquiry representatives. Thus SASVic is well placed to comment on the findings of the Inquiry.

Quotes attributable to SASVic Chief Executive Officer Kathleen Maltzahn.

While we are heartened by some of the report’s findings we are concerned that the recommendations are framed as though what happened at Beaumaris was an isolated historical incident. 

The crimes committed at Beaumaris Primary School are historic but the 18 sexual assault centres we represent know that these crimes occur in institutional and private settings every day.

Without proper resourcing and law reform we are not necessarily any better placed to prevent and respond to such crimes today than we were in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

Report recommendations
The recommendations in the Board of Inquiry's report will not achieve the transformative change required to prevent and respond to current as well as historical child sexual abuse. We urgently need the government to commit to systemic change and build on this inquiry and past inquiries.

In response to this report, the government should:

1. Deliver on their promised Sexual Violence plan - deliver the comprehensive10-year Victorian sexual violence strategy promised by the Victorian Government to be delivered in 2022.
2. Learn from the past – establish a funded Emergency Response Package for schools and small communities impacted by current child sexual abusecommensurate with the scale of harm these children, their families and the community they live in are experiencing.
3. Commit to decency - the government, including the Education Department, must act as a model litigant in compensation matters, and refrain fromaggressive legal tactics against survivors.
4. Fund real recovery - fund specialist sexual assault services adequately to cut down waiting lists, meet demand and support survivors throughout their recovery journey and expand access to recovery groups, case management support and support for secondary victims, and meet the needs of all survivors, including people with disability.
5. Develop new recovery programs - resource SASVic to develop dedicated and ongoing ‘Justice Navigator’ roles embedded into specialist sexual assault services across Victoria. This role would help survivors understand and exercise their rights and navigate the various support, compensation, recovery and justice options available to them. As recommended by the inquiry, resource SASVic to work with our members, and partners in the alcohol and other drug, mental health and criminal justice sectors, to develop and deliver more tailored programs so that all survivors can recover.
6. Give survivors and supporters the information they need in one place –resource the specialist sexual assault sector to provide information and resources such as ‘how to report’ or ‘how to support children’ on a central website, including resources for secondary victims.
7. Set survivors up to succeed when they receive compensation - fund SASVic to develop, and the sector to deliver, an end-to-end compensation support program, from when they are first considering applying for compensation to after they receive it.
8. Expand prevention education – expand the delivery of disability-accessible, sexual rights and consent education and promote recognition of sexual violence across the community through partnerships between specialist sexual assault services and schools.
9. Recognise the suffering of survivors’ families - fund the specialist sexual assault sector adequately to support secondary victims such as survivors' parents, partners, children and other loved ones.
10. Strengthen accountability - improve the way we hold perpetrators to account, including more transparent complaints and reporting processes, better responses to child sexual abuse material and specialist assistance for secondary victims.”
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Another reminder that the next Victorian Child Sexual Abuse Survivors and Supporters lunch is on Wednesday, 13th March, an important time for the community to come together after the Beaumaris Board of Inquiry report has been made public.

The Sandringham Hotel is accessible via public transport, a short walk from the Sandringham Railway Station. There is also off street and undercover parking, plus it is wheel chair accessible. There is no minimum spend requirements either, nor is there a booking fee, and there is an express menu available from 11:30 AM - 3 PM midweek, that is a main and dessert for $19.

We have booked a table on the outside balcony, to be Covid and virus safe, as much as possible.

You can turn up on the day, but if it is possible please RSVP beforehand via the Facebook event link below, thank you.
https://fb.me/e/4KeUCMTLl

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Thank you to all our supporters, and please don't hesitate to share your thoughts on the Board of Inquiry recommendations with us too, via our Facebook page. 

https://www.facebook.com/CSA3193

We are stronger together.