The SERICC Representatives gave a presentation which can be found here.

Councillor Ralph said that the data and information presented was shocking to hear. He questioned whether the figures were increasing or decreasing in comparison to previous years. Rebekeh Brant replied that the figures had remained the same due to the lockdowns during Covid-19. However, there had been an increase of sexual violence or abuse in the home. Since 2016, there had been a steady rise in sexual offences as some people took years to come forward. The service received referrals from the police and other agencies and worked with them to support victims. The biggest source of referrals were self-referrals. Sheila Coates added that working with survivors had different outcomes and the service supported anyone who came to them for support. She explained that each survivor dealt with the impact of sexual offences differently which made it difficult for them to come forward.

Councillor Ralph noted that the number of people coming forward were increasing and asked whether Thurrock was encouraging more people to come forward for support. Sheila Coates answered that the numbers were increasing on a national level. The service encouraged more people to come forward as it was important that they were supported and would look to the media to advertise their services.

The Vice-Chair questioned whether rape and sexual violence included female genital mutilation. He also asked if there was data on other characteristics such as whether perpetrators operated alone or in groups such as grooming gangs. Sheila Coates replied that this was classed as domestic abuse although the service felt it fell under sexual violence. The service did not have stats for this. Referring to slide 4 of the presentation, Rebekeh Brant explained that the data showed the number of incidents carried out by a group of perpetrators which included family group or a gang. Sheila Coates added that the data would not show if it was a grooming gang but if a pattern was seen within the data, then this would be looked into. She said that SERICC could come back to the Committee in 6 months’ time with more data and to discuss the issue of violence on men and boys.

Members agreed for SERICC to come back to the Committee in 6 months’ time. They highlighted their concerns that men and boys had been overlooked in the strategy for women and girls as there had been a footnote on men and boys within that strategy. They were aware that the statistics showed that women and girls were at higher risk but felt that men and boys needed to be considered too. Sheila Coates explained that there was a national debate on a strategy on men and boys and was waiting for government to bring one forward. She said that in Thurrock, there was little data on sexual violence against men and boys but those who came forward to the service were supported as well. She went on to say that the service not only supported victims but also family members which included men and boys.

Councillor Okunade praised the service for their hard work and support to survivors. She said that she was shocked to hear that the youngest victim was a 4 year old child. SERICC mentioned that there were incidents that had occurred with children younger than 4 years old. The service was working with the police to send messages out to perpetrators as well to stop their abuse.

The Chair asked if there were figures for the number of incidents caused by health professionals in Thurrock and nationally. Referring to slide 8, Rebekeh Brant said that there were a number of people in a position of trust shown in the data. This data related to Thurrock and she would look into the national data. Sheila Coates added that a pattern was recognised if the person in a position of trust was coming up more than once but there was currently no pattern in Thurrock. She said that there was a larger volume of abuse within the home and mentioned that the sexual murder of Sarah Everard had seen over 83,000 people contact the Home Office with their concerns. She went on to say that services needed to work together to tackle sexual violence.

Members thanked SERICC for their update and for supporting survivors and their families.