Sexual abuse of children under 5 yrs old

Summary

The requester asked for annual statistics on sexual abuse cases involving children under 5, including prosecutions and staff training numbers, for the years 2020 to 2025. Manx Care provided data on general abuse referrals, specific sexual abuse referrals from June 2023 onwards, and Child Protection Plan figures, but withheld detailed historical data for 2020-2023 due to the excessive cost of manual review and redirected prosecution data to the police.

Key Facts

• Specific data on sexual abuse referrals is only available from June 2023 onwards due to changes in recording categories.
• Manx Care refused to manually review 2020-2023 records to extract specific sexual abuse data as it would exceed 18 hours of work.
• Prosecution statistics are held by the Isle of Man Constabulary, not Manx Care.
• All qualified social workers receive mandatory training on Child Sexual Abuse, with additional specialized courses offered in 2022 and 2023.
• The number of children placed on Child Protection Plans for sexual abuse ranged from 2 to 6 annually between 2020 and 2025.

Data Disclosed

• 2025: 74 sexual abuse referrals (up to July)
• 2024: 104 sexual abuse referrals
• 2023: 60 sexual abuse referrals (June-December)
• 2025: 5 children on Child Protection Plan (Sexual Abuse)
• 2024: 2 children on Child Protection Plan (Sexual Abuse)
• 2023: 2 children on Child Protection Plan (Sexual Abuse)
• 2022: 4 children on Child Protection Plan (Sexual Abuse)
• 2021: 6 children on Child Protection Plan (Sexual Abuse)
• 2020: 2 children on Child Protection Plan (Sexual Abuse)
• 25 attendees at Intra-Familial Sexual Abuse training in November 2022
• 18 hours of work threshold for exemption

Exemptions Cited

• Section 8(3) of the Freedom of Information Act 2015 (exemption for creating, deriving, or substantially compiling information)

Original Request

Broken down each year for years 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and to todays date in 2025 - how many allegation/reports/cases of sexual abuse were made - how many of these were followed up - how many required further safeguarding measures or interventions - how many prosecutions were made - how many cases were closed with no action How many social service staff are fully trained in sexual abuse for children under 5 years How many healthcare staff are fully trained in sexual abuse for children under 5 years

Data Tables (1)

Data Tables (reformatted)

Full Response Text

Manx Care Noble’s Hospital, Strang Braddan, Isle of Man IM4 4R (01624) 650 000

Our ref: 4782345 21 July 2025

Dear

We write further to your request, received 8 July 2025, which states:

"Broken down each year for years 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and to today’s date in 2025

• how many allegation/reports/cases of sexual abuse were made

• how many of these were followed up

• how many required further safeguarding measures or interventions

• how many prosecutions were made

• how many cases were closed with no action

How many social service staff are fully trained in sexual abuse for children under 5 years

How many healthcare staff are fully trained in sexual abuse for children under 5 years"

Response While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the public authority does not hold or cannot, after taking reasonable steps to do so, find some of the information that you have requested.
When there is a suspicion of child abuse or neglect, the standard procedure is to initiate a referral to Manx Care, Social Care Services - Children & Families. At the point of referral, the category of need is broadly recorded as “abuse or neglect,” if this fits with the description of the concern, with additional information (e.g. sexual abuse) detailed in the narrative section rather than categorised further. The below table provides information as to which of these referrals resulted in no further action being taken and those where further services were offered and followed up.

Annual Referrals with Category of Need: Abuse or Neglect

Year Total Referrals Referrals Categorised as Abuse or Neglect Service Initiated No Further Action Taken 2025 811 642 298 344

2024 1,481 1,099 448 865 2023 1,721 1,182 437 1,138 2022 1,174 677 354 638 2021 1,088 920 433 575 2020 1,247 908 314 838

*“Service initiated” and “No further action taken” refer specifically to referrals where the recorded category of need was abuse or neglect. From June 2023 onward, the referral category of need was further refined to include subcategories for Sexual Abuse and Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE). The figures below represent referrals received each year that included these specific concerns:

Referrals Involving Sexual Abuse

• June–December 2023: 60 referrals • Full Year 2024: 104 referrals • Up to July 2025: 74 referrals

Referrals Involving Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE)

• June–December 2023: 28 referrals • Full Year 2024: 45 referrals • Up to July 2025: 56 referrals

Prior to June 2023, in order to ascertain which referrals are specifically related to sexual abuse, every referral in the period 2020-May 2023 would need to be reviewed and specific information obtained. This would substantially exceed an additional 18 hours of work. This is not something that Manx Care is required to do under section 8(3) of the Freedom of Information Act 2015, as this would require us to create or derive information held, undertake research into, or analysis of information held or to undertake substantial compilation or collation of information held.

The table below may also be helpful and shows the number of children, by year, who were placed on a Child Protection Plan under the category of sexual abuse.

Year Children Placed on Child Protection Plan (Sexual Abuse) 2025
5 2024
2 2023
2 2022
4 2021
6 2020
2

Safeguarding measures form part of a child’s care plan, if any additional measures are identified these will be added to the individual’s plan whilst being monitored and reviewed by all professionals involved.

Within their social work training, all qualified social workers are trained in regards to Child Sexual Abuse. Additional training is provided to all C&F Social Care staff, both multi-agency through the Safeguarding Board and in house specific to this topic:

• All Children and Families staff complete mandatory Safeguarding Children training which includes Child Sexual Abuse. • External additional training was sourced in November 2022 and offered to all staff. There was uptake from approximately 25 attendees on the training provided by the Centre of Excellence for Sexual Abuse, this was a 2 day training course on Intra-Familial Sexual Abuse. • In person training was delivered by a published expert in the field (Calder Training & Consultancy Ltd) on 27/06/2023.

For information relation to the number of prosecutions, this would need to be redirected to the Isle of Man Constabulary, their records would show the number of cases progressed for specific sexual offences.

Please quote the reference number 4782345 in any future communications.

Your right to request a review

If you are unhappy with this response to your freedom of information request, you may ask us to carry out an internal review of the response, by completing a complaint form and submitting it electronically or by delivery/post.

An electronic version of our complaint form can be found by going to our website at https://services.gov.im/freedom-of-information/Review . If you would like a paper version of our complaint form to be sent to you by post, please contact me and I will be happy to arrange for this. Your review request should explain why you are dissatisfied with this response, and should be made as soon as practicable. We will respond as soon as the review has been concluded.

If you are not satisfied with the result of the review, you then have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner for a decision on; 1. Whether we have responded to your request for information in accordance with Part 2 of the Freedom of Information Act 2015; or 2. Whether we are justified in refusing to give you the information requested.
In response to an application for review, the Information Commissioner may, at any time, attempt to resolve a matter by negotiation, conciliation, mediation or another form of alternative dispute resolution and will have regard to any outcome of this in making any subsequent decision. More detailed information on your right to a review can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website at www.inforights.im. Should you have any queries concerning this letter, please do not hesitate to contact me. Further information about freedom of information requests can be found at www.gov.im/foi.

I will now close your request as of this date.

Yours sincerely