Abuse and neglect a national disgrace

The survivors of abuse and neglect in state and faith-based care have been  heard and believed  by the government. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon acknowledged this in his speech to parliament after the tabling of the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care yesterday:

Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come.

It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. 

At the heart of this report are the stories of 2,400 survivors – many of whom are here today.

To every person who took part, I say thank you for your exceptional strength, your incredible courage, and your confronting honesty.

Because of you, we know the truth about the abuse and trauma you have endured.

I cannot take away your pain, but I can tell you this: 

You are heard and you are believed.

Many of your stories are horrific and harrowing.  They are painful to read, but not as painful as they were to endure.

The State was supposed to care for you – but instead many of you were subjected to the most horrendous physical, emotional, mental, and sexual abuse. 

A number of faith-based schools, institutions and people in positions of authority who you should have been able to trust – failed you in the worst possible way.

When you tried to speak up those same people turned a blind eye, they covered it up, and they prevented you from seeking justice for far too long.

Māori, Pacific, deaf and disabled people disproportionately bore the brunt of a lot of what occurred.

Not only has this had a devastating impact on your life, but also on your families and communities.  

We like to think that abuse like this doesn’t happen here in New Zealand. But it did and it is a shameful chapter of our history that we must confront. 

Mr Speaker, this is a dark and sorrowful day in New Zealand’s history.

It is important that, as a country, we bring to the surface and understand the hard truths of what happened so we can try and move forward together.

I say to the survivors, the burden is no longer yours to carry alone. 

The State is now standing here beside you, accountable and ready to take action.

Mr Speaker, the Royal Commission traversed many types of care as part of its inquiry. 

It is my heavy duty to say that today, the Government is formally acknowledging that the experiences of some children and young people at Lake Alice Hospital did amount to torture.

Patients at Lake Alice were given electric shocks without anaesthetic, as well as painful and immobilising paraldehyde injections.

These so-called treatments were not administered for medical reasons. They were used for punishment and emotional control.

These experiences were nothing short of horrific and they happened in the New Zealand health system within living memory.

To the survivors of Lake Alice – some of whom are here today – thank you for your determination to ensure what you suffered was brought to light. 

What happened was wrong. You knew then it was wrong, and all these years later, the State also acknowledges it was wrong.

Today, I humbly stand before you in this house to offer a long overdue apology to the survivors of Lake Alice. I am sorry that it has taken so long for this acknowledgement of torture.

I also acknowledge Paul Zentveld and Malcolm Richards who took cases against New Zealand to the United Nations Committee Against Torture. 

Thank you for your courage, your bravery and your determination.

I know that for some Lake Alice survivors, the acknowledgement today that what happened to you was torture is something for which you have been waiting for decades.

For you, this is a day of great significance. For others who suffered torture, I know this acknowledgement feels hollow without the recognition that comes with redress. 

I regret that that is not something that we can give you today, but it is a priority for the Government in the coming months.

We are here today because it was important to the Government that an acknowledgement and sincere apology be made with gravitas and dignity. It deserved to be made in this Parliament.

I know that some survivors are in fragile health and that a number have passed away during the inquiry, never hearing the State acknowledge the true extent of what happened to them. 

To their families and whānau, I am sorry that they are not here to hear the State admit to what we should have owned many years ago.

Mr Speaker, not every child in state care was harmed and of course there are, and always have been, many dedicated and devoted foster parents and social workers committed to looking after children in their care.

But today is about acknowledging those who had their carefree childhoods cruelly taken away from them.

The tabling of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care report is of historical significance to New Zealand.  

It is the result of the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held on our shores.

The report has taken six years to write and is almost 3,000 pages long comprising 16 volumes. 

Because of this, the content needs to be considered with respect and with care.

It cannot be rushed. 

The findings in this report need to be widely understood.

While we can never make right the harm survivors experienced, the Government must be accountable and support survivors. 

Erica Stanford will lead a Ministerial Group to respond to the report’s findings and the 138 recommendations.

The first step is a formal apology which will take place on November 12th. This is a significant and important milestone, and we are working with survivor groups to deliver an event that gives it the dignity it deserves.

The apology will provide an important opportunity for the Government, and the leaders of other political parties, to take responsibility on behalf of the nation for the failures of the State across many governments.  

I know survivors have been waiting a long time for changes to how the State and churches provide redress.

I want to assure you that we understand the urgency and importance of this work and we will provide clarity before the end of the year.

I do want to pay tribute to the Commissioners and all of the staff who worked on this Inquiry. 

There is no doubt that those who have heard, written and read these accounts have been impacted by these horrific and harrowing experiences.

The care, sensitivity and dedication you have shown in compiling this report is greatly appreciated – thank you.

I would also like to acknowledge the previous Labour Government who commenced this important inquiry almost six years ago. 

A terrible injustice was done in the name of State care. It is now the responsibility of the State to make redress and this Government will ensure it happens.

And as Prime Minister, I will ensure the State carries its care and protection responsibilities with great weight. 

As difficult as it is, I hope all New Zealanders take the time to read this report to understand the abuse that you, the survivors, suffered and the lifelong impact it has had on your lives.

Through this, we will understand the obligation we all have to prevent it happening again and to speak up whenever and wherever we see the abuse of anyone, in care or otherwise.  

I want to again acknowledge the survivors for their exceptional bravery and for sharing their stories.

I share your dream for the next generation where every child, young person and adult is loved, safe, and cared for in a manner that supports their growth and development into a thriving contributor to our society.

I will never lose sight of what you have endured to bring the truth to life.

I would like to close with an excerpt from a karakia written by Waihoroi Shortland who worked on the Inquiry:

“To you upon whom this inquiry has been centred,

Resolute in your pursuit of justice

Relentless in your belief for life

We have only our highest regard and respect,

May your peace of mind be assured.”

Thank you.

Other MPs spoke, some from personal experience:

Hon KAREN CHHOUR (Minister for Children): Thank you, Mr Speaker. As today is a day of reflection and acknowledgement of the past, I would just like to take a moment to acknowledge those who are no longer with us, those who never had a chance to hear their voices heard, those souls who left this world only knowing the horrors they experienced, the cruelty, and the unbearable treatment that they received, and my heart goes out to them. I’d also like to acknowledge everyone who is in the gallery here today or watching from afar. I know this will not be easy for many. I know our words here today cannot, and will never, take away the pain of what has happened. But I do pray it goes a little way towards lifting the lifetime of frustration of not being heard, not being believed. And for that, I am truly sorry.

Today, we table a document in this House that is evidence of systematic abuse that went ignored for decades by those who were supposed to protect us. Through inadequate responses by those who knew suspect or suspected abuse was going on. Through inadequate screening management or accountability of abuse of people who were working in the system. Through children, young people, and those with disabilities and with mental health challenges being ignored or dismissed when they tried to speak up.

As both Minister for Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence and Minister for Children, this report is extremely important. It helps myself, and those working within this space now, to have a true understanding of how the State and faith-based agencies so badly failed in their basic duty of care and protection. It lays down the challenge for us going forward when we create systems and policies and practices—that they uphold the rights and the wellbeing of those in need and protection.

It has been extremely hard and distressing to read the individual stories of victim/survivors who speak not only of what happened to them back as children but also how that abuse has impacted them throughout their lives and as adults, and the generational trauma that persists in their often complicated relationships with their families to this day. The fact that so many offenders were able to victimise and harm repeatedly for years on end, negatively impacting countless children and their families for generations, long past their own lifetimes, is devastating and unacceptable. The ease with which these crimes were committed is horrifying. These perpetrators knew that society was conditioned to not believe young victims. These monsters used their positions of authority both as a weapon and a shield. Children believed that police, Government, and other adults who were complicit in the abuse due to the stonewalling of their cries for help. And rightly so.

We must take a long hard look at not only the perpetrators but those who enabled this abuse to continue for so long by choosing to look the other way. Which is why I cannot express this enough: if you see something, say something. Too many of us have failed, and still to this day are failing to do this. There are deep connections between both of my portfolios. Many of those in care and the protection system are there due to family violence and sexual violence being part of their everyday lives. It is unacceptable to remove a child from harm only to place them in an environment that is equally unsafe or worse.

What is important now is that we continue to drive change. I cannot stand here and say with my hand on heart that young people are no longer being hurt in care. But what I can say, and what I should be able to say, is that my expectation is that they will listen, they will be believed, and we will address it immediately. To not do so is unacceptable. I have made my expectations crystal clear that the children’s system as a whole needs to work to recognise harm and stop it from happening. We are making changes to address the issues in care and protection system, but there is way more to do and it is far from perfect. Some of those working to make the change we need to see, and who are making the real differences, are Oranga Tamariki staff who were themselves survivors, who suffered trauma too and joined the organisation to fight for change from the inside. I want to acknowledge those people today. We need the care system as a whole for children and for adults across all settings and environments to become increasingly safer for those who need it. We know that children and young people who were put into these environments were often already victims of abuse, harm, or trauma, which was only made worse by their new living conditions and the lack of sufficient support in care.

Time and time again, the report points out Māori being disproportionately affected, being massively overrepresented in numbers of children and young people taken from their homes and put into State care. No one, regardless of their race, gender, or any other identity, deserves to be in a situation where they are abused and denied basic care, and I am committed to doing everything within my power to ensure that no child or young person in New Zealand suffers abuse in State or faith-based care.

I want capable workforces who respect those that they work with, social norms that respect everyone, and systems that respond appropriately when we don’t. Events at residences such as Epuni were appalling. This has been the driving force for me focusing on ensuring that residences of today are the best that they can be.

The severity of what these children went through was repeatedly referred to as hell on earth. Their time in State or faith-based care included stories of electric shocks, injections as punishment, physical and sexual abuse, extended solitary confinement, emotional and psychological abuse, not to mention the continuous racism, ableism, and homophobia.

According to the definition outlined by the Solicitor-General, the children who were sent to Lake Alice went through torture. The unchecked power that people had over children in far too many facilities across this nation, combined with access to isolated physical environments away from families and support networks, led to the ideal environment for abusers to do whatever they wanted, with little to no consequences.

This quote from the Stolen Lives, Marked Souls report sums up the nature of the abuse clearly: “These men used and abused their spiritual and physical power and dominance, destroyed the lives of children, and then discarded them.”

A victim survivor in the Beautiful Children report talks about the vicious cycle these children were caught up in. After being sexually abused by a man in charge of referrals to Lake Alice, a boy tried to commit suicide. He says, “He did it to me and I complained and I wasn’t listened to. I tried to kill myself. And because of that, that’s how I ended up in Lake Alice. You see what happens? They violate you, they complain, you get punished further, and nothing happens to the perpetrator. Silence is golden.”

When these children would rightfully lash out or react to the abuse by trying to run away or misbehaving, their abusers would use that as evidence against them to justify locking them up, further mistreating or punishing them, and using the behaviour to discredit these children as not trustworthy and able to be ignored.

I have my own personal trauma related to dealing with State care and this report affects me deeply. I am filled with compassion for the hardships and the trauma that so many have endured and continue to suffer from. This report has renewed my determination to break the cycle of family violence and sexual violence. It’s time we face this poison that is rotting our nation from the inside. Because of this, I also feel an enormous level of responsibility to be a strong advocate and a leader of change, to ensure that not only those who suffered abuse as children long ago but also those in the system today are heard and our entire system responds to them in a safe and appropriate way.

I commend the courage of those who came forward about their abuse, despite being silenced and not being believed in the past. I also would like to acknowledge those who may not have submitted but suffered all the same. I will do everything in my power to make sure that nothing like this can happen again. You have my commitment to listen, to learn from the experiences that you have shared. What has happened is clearly unacceptable. This report tells us that we tolerated rape and abuse of vulnerable people and the misuse of power for far too long. It is time to learn from our mistakes and change.

This report and its recommendations are confronting, powerful, and clear. A lot of the stories contained within are extremely vivid and deeply shocking. This did not just happen in a few isolated cases or situations; the abuse was systematic, continuous, and, sadly, normalised. Abusing a position of authority over those who have no ability to stand up for themselves and who needed protection and love at such a critical time in their development is a crime beyond measure. It is important that we act decisively and honour the courage of these victims and survivors by making sure that something like this never happens again.  

Hon CASEY COSTELLO (NZ First): I speak on behalf of New Zealand First as part of the Government’s response to the royal commission’s report into historical abuse in State care and in the care of faith-based institutions.

I particularly want to acknowledge those of you who are here today. It is being here that makes these pages come to life. When, in the coming days, weeks, and months we come together to discuss, reflect, and respond, it will be your faces that keep us focused on the pathway forward. This is the day when Parliament has come together to speak to you all, not just to those of you who are here but to all the voices that were not previously heard, all the faces not previously seen, and the experiences not previously believed. The royal commission’s report brought you to visit Parliament, perhaps, for some of you, for the first time. I hope that it now becomes your Parliament and a place where you can feel that the House of Representatives is not talking about you, but that we are representing you.

No matter your politics, no matter your party affiliations or political outlook, I believe every member in this Chamber knows that the key role of the State is to protect our most vulnerable. Every society should be judged by how we care for and protect those who need it most. This report is our judgment. We are here today recognising that this is a shameful part of New Zealand’s history. As a society and as the Crown, we should have done better. As you have heard already today, we are determined that we will do better—not through political posturing, but through a collective will.

When we enter this House as the elected representatives of New Zealand, we make what is called our maiden speech, the first words you speak to introduce who you are, the first words that tell the world about why you were brought to this place, and, more importantly, what you aspire to achieve. One of the most common messages you will hear in those maiden speeches is the desire to be able to come together across the political divide to truly make a difference. It is clear to me, and from the words spoken here, we are united to make that difference. I thank you for bringing us to this place.

I have been part of the ministerial group that was established by Cabinet to guide the Government’s response to the royal commission’s recommendations. I can assure you of the passion, determination, and commitment, led by Minister Stanford, to achieve what we are promising here today. It is my belief that we have an opportunity, we have the will, and we will continue to do better well beyond today.

Early in my working life, I joined the police. It is now many years since I ended that part of my career. But in the 14 years of my service, I looked into the eyes of many victims. No matter how long it has been and how far away from that work I have ventured, I still see those eyes and I see those faces. Whether it was a child who had been the victim of recent abuse and the wounds were still visible and the pain still evident, or whether it was a grown adult who was recounting the pain from many years ago, the experiences have never left me. I can still see the pattern of a pair of pyjamas. I can still see the colour of their eyes that had lost the ability to shed tears. I can recall the turn of phrase in recounting events of trauma and pain. I can still be returned to those events and those instances of suffering. No matter how long ago I was involved in the investigations, I can be taken to that place by a smell, a pattern, or a word. It is hard to comprehend how, as a survivor, that recall must impact you every day.

It was through walking through that journey from victim to survivor that I am able to being to understand how hard your journey has been. In some way, it helps me understand what it must have been like for those who have shared their experiences in the report, having to fight so hard to be heard. Even when a victim is immediately heard, when they are immediately responded to and intervention is put in place, it is still a hard journey to walk. To have to fight to have your story heard is a pain that I cannot even begin to reconcile in my mind.

I tried to reconcile a particular face that I see often when I close my eyes, not because of the suffering he endured—this poor little boy was tortured—but because of the absolute shining light of joy that he showed when he smiled. The saddest thing was that despite all the suffering, the joy came from the smallest act of kindness; he was given a lollipop from a nurse, and his face lit up. I still see that smile.

As I’ve been reading these pages and absorb the accounts of abuse, it reminds me that for these survivors—for all of you who had so little shown to you in way of kindness and love—it would have been such small interventions that could have made a difference and, for a moment, brought you some joy. Perhaps today, as we speak and recognise the strength, resilience, perseverance, and courage, there will be some light.

Today is significant. The royal commission’s report is now public. Most importantly, survivors’ stories are now public. New Zealand can read these and reflect. As the public and all of us read, reflect, and absorb, I would also like to acknowledge those who worked to bring it to us; the commissioners and all those who committed to a journey that, at its start, had no clear destination. The pathway changed and it was a longer process than we first considered. I know how hard it is looking into the face of suffering. Thank you all for bringing this report to us.

We are not yet at a destination. The Government is continuing to digest the commission’s final report. This report was six years in the making. The response cannot be rushed. It needs to be considered with respect and care. So many lives have been affected over so many years. You are individuals. You have your own views reflecting your own experiences, including how we should respond to the recommendations and findings made by the royal commission. We know, however, that survivors have waited a long time for this report and are eager to see action. We owe it to people to understand what happened and to ensure we deliver our response with the respect and dignity it deserves. We know, however, that survivors have waited a long time for this report and are eager to see action.

But for today, in this place, you should know you are seen, you are heard, you are valued, and you are believed. It will have been hard and painful to share your story. It has been hard and painful to read it. However, you must know that after we all leave this place, when we have taken the action agreed and delivered what is needed, your story will never fade out. We have heard your voice, we have seen your face, and we have felt your pain. Today you have changed lives, moved hearts, and opened eyes. Thank you.

Hon ERICA STANFORD (Lead Coordination Minister for the Government’s Response to the Royal Commission’s Report into Historical Abuse in State Care and in the Care of Faith-based Institutions):

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Today is historic as we table the Royal Commission report with an apology to follow on 12 November and we will work alongside, and we are working alongside, survivors to design how and where that apology takes place. Thousands of incredibly brave survivors, many who have made the journey here today to Parliament, have told their stories that are now permanently etched on the pages of history. And the record in those pages is a dark stain on New Zealand’s past. The stories contained in this report serve to all New Zealanders a very harsh jolt of reality because I think we believed that these sorts of unimaginable horrors and atrocities never happened here, but they happened in other places, to other people. But because of you, we know that they happened here, they happened at scale, and they destroyed so many lives.

Today, these stories are shared with all of New Zealand. As the lead Minister for the Crown response, I have read all of your stories. The young people that were taken into care were disabled; they were neurodiverse; they may have had a traumatic upbringing. Some were put into care for hardly any reason at all. Many of you don’t understand why you were put into care and protection at all. But all of those young people needed care and love and protection. They needed an education, they needed specialist support, they needed to be cared for, they needed to be nurtured, and they needed to be loved. Instead, they were placed in facilities and in homes that they describe as “hell holes”. Reading the stories, I was struck by the way that so many of your accounts were so disturbingly similar. There was little or no education. Violence was vicious and it was normalised. Beatings from carers were regular. Solitary confinement was used, sometimes for weeks and weeks on end. Sexual abuse was rife and on children so very young. Food was restricted and racism was a constant. There were weak systems, there were weak oversights, and there was certainly weak accountability.

At the boot camps on Great Barrier, boys were forced to dig their own graves. They were made to lie face down in those holes while they were being shot at. They screamed and they were terrified. The staff were not vetted, they were not trained in care and protection. They were tormentors.

At so many boys’ facilities, the adults that were not dishing out the beatings themselves, were encouraging those boys to viciously beat each other. At the psychiatric facilities, patients were drugged, they were sexually abused, and they were beaten. They were given the ECT, they were spent weeks in solitary confinement, they were racially abused, and they regressed. Many of the people in those institutions should never have been there. There was no reason for them to be there.

In faith-based homes, pregnant mothers were denied food so that they would have smaller babies and easier births, and their babies were ripped away from them and adopted out without the chance for a mother to hold her newborn and say goodbye. There was often no medical follow up for the damage that was caused during birth. Young girls in faith-based care were given abortions without their knowledge and without their consent to cover up this abuse.

These people—you—tried speaking out; it got you nowhere. Nobody believed you, and it was safer just to stay silent. Many would attempt to run away from the horrors, only to be picked up and taken back and be abused again. One particular account noted that “after particularly awful sexual abuse, I ran away that morning, but the police caught me within hours, and when I got back he was still there. He was waiting for me.” Story after story say the same thing. “Nobody ever asked us why we ran away. No one at the places we were sent to asked about our home lives, asked why we behaved the way that we did. We were treated like prisoners.”

The result of these institutions and facilities were that young people were broken. They were separated from their whānau, they were denied their reo, their sign language, their culture. Some recounted turning to substance abuse to numb the pain, and years of violence in care was normalised and so often played a part of the rest of their lives. For so many survivors, they spent stints in jail where they would meet—as we’ve heard—other survivors they had spent time with in the past. So many survivors found solace in gangs because gangs were the first place where they were cared about.

To the survivors, you repeatedly spoke truth to those who you thought were there to protect you, and too often you were ignored. The abuse was covered up, the investigations were botched, or the investigations didn’t happen at all. The Crown owed you all a duty of care and protection and we have utterly failed you.

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While we have come so far, in too many cases we have not come far enough. The stories of survivors are too often mirrored in what we hear today. Young boys in Oranga Tamariki care who are fighting each other in MMA style fights, being filmed by the staff—the staff who were not vetted, who were not trained, who were not trained in care and protection. These stories may well have been in these reports, but they’re happening now. These are our most vulnerable and damaged tamariki, and this report tells us today that we must do better. As a Government, we are committed to delivering our response to the report with the respect and dignity it deserves.

But today is about the survivors. Today we hear your stories. Today we acknowledge your bravery, and your bravery will not only correct the historic record, but it will determine our future. You are brave, we acknowledge you, and we thank you. Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa.

• Hon DAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT): I start by acknowledging those of the 200,000 that we know about who were abused, who did not get to see this day because they passed before it came, because it took too long; those who were put in dark places where the last people that they thought they could trust turned out to abuse them further—physically, psychologically, sexually, medically, educationally, culturally. In every way that a person could be abused, they were, and yet they never lived to see this acknowledgement today. This is their day and the day of all survivors.

  For those who are here today, those who participated in this commission, this is the day that many perhaps thought would never come, because the thing that bullies and abusers do that they all have in common, no matter what form they take, is that they try to deny your reality, to stop you seeing and saying and asserting your truth and what has happened to you.

  This report finally puts on the Table of this House of Parliament—your Parliament—a formal acknowledgement of what has happened. It was hideous. Some people who have spoken today have made apologies and some haven’t. I want to be clear that people on this side with the Government have not apologised today because we believe it is so important that we make sure that this report and its recommendations are properly considered and the form of apology and anything else that goes with it is not done to those survivors but actually created with them, so that it is genuine.

  I think the spirit we’ve heard today that people from all political stripes will put down their political perspectives and work together in order to have that sincere apology and redress is not just welcome, it’s the only way that it should be. In that process, we all have to learn. All of us have beliefs. There are some who have already tried to bring politics into today. We should not do that. There are things that we need to learn and acknowledge, that yes, the State failed.

  The State failed in three ways. It failed to run safe institutions of its own. Anyone who has lived in a place where you are on a site that you may not be allowed or able to leave, with a select group of people, perhaps with walls and people who are put in charge, you can see whether or not abuse happened at the place you lived. If you’ve lived at a place like that, you can see how strong the potential is.

  The second thing that the State failed to do was to have the accountability and the oversight and the protection, given that very obvious danger in any kind of residential facility or institution, not only in its own facilities but in facilities run by faith-based and other organisations.

  The third way that the State failed is that even when people pointed out what was wrong—and someone says “failing”. That’s fair, but for the purpose of this report, the way that it failed is that it covered up. When people thought that they might be listened to, it was covered up.

  I acknowledge that there have been some of the worst human prejudices against people of a different gender, people of a different sexuality, people of a different race, people of living with a disability. Those prejudices came out in these horrible places. But one of the things that we have to accept, beside the fact that the State is not always essentially good and that sometimes it’s the god that failed, is that if we hate in ourselves that prejudice that has come out in these places, then we must recommit ourselves to a State that upholds the inherent human dignity of each and every human being, no matter the hue or creed from whence they come. That is the lesson we should take and should recommit ourselves to as we work through the process of apology and redress as a result of this report.

  It is for all New Zealand, finally, not only to acknowledge that the State failed, but all of us have to look at the country that we thought was above these bad things, that it could never happen on such a scale, so grotesquely, that we were good people and bad things happened elsewhere. Actually, it did happen here. It is not only the State that failed; it is on all of us to be better parents, to be more caring, to listen to people when we think that they’re being ignored. Government and State and Government alone cannot fix this problem; it actually rests on all New Zealanders.

  This is the day for those survivors and especially to remember those who survived but could not see this report published today. The days to come are the days that we must commit to doing better in every way available to us. Thank you.

The report which includes a harrowing account of emotional, physical, psychological and sexual abuse can be read here.

What happened is a national disgrace and what makes it even worse is the suspicion that ill treatment of vulnerable people in care is not just in the distant past.

I used to chair a trust that had contracts to carry out inspections of residential services for people with intellectual disabilities.

We went in teams of three and interviewed residents, their families, staff and managers to build up a comprehensive picture of the services.

The majority of homes were providing high quality care by dedicated and compassionate staff, some needed to make some improvements and a very few had significant shortcomings that required urgent action.

That was more than 20 years ago. How can there be any confidence that the abuse and other inappropriate behaviour highlighted in the report isn’t still happening?

The government and service providers have a responsibility to right past wrongs. They must also do everything possible to protect children and vulnerable adults in care from abuse now and in the future.