Building on my earlier posts: what the new VAWG strategy does — and doesn’t — do for CSA. In recent posts, I’ve argued that child sexual abuse (CSA) is not treated as a distinct, funded, strategic harm within the Violence Against Women and Girls #VAWG framework — and that this has real consequences in practice. I want to say this clearly: I know #MinisterJessPhillips will have worked extremely hard to deliver the changes announced today. Government departments are well known for operating in silos, and the strategy does show genuine cross-departmental effort. That should be recognised. There is much here that is welcome: • rebuilding specialist policing capability • strengthening domestic abuse responses • tackling online abuse • embedding misogyny and healthy-relationships education in schools • expanding Child House (Barnahus) provision I agree with the emphasis on prevention and culture change. Misogyny education matters. Teaching young people about consent, coercion, respect and harmful online cultures is essential for long-term change. But we also need to be honest about limits. These measures do not yet tackle the endemic public-health crisis we face when it comes to child sexual abuse and exploitation (CSA/CSE). As I’ve already set out: • Only 1 in 8 children who experience sexual abuse are identified by professionals • Most CSA happens within families • Most abused children are never known to statutory services • Funding and strategy follow visibility, not prevalence It’s also important to understand what the headline ambition to “halve VAWG” actually measures. The main metric relies on adult data (people aged 16+). That means it does not capture: • children • hidden intrafamilial abuse • adult survivors of non-recent CSA unless they report • long-term harm and recovery So the largest and most harmful forms of abuse sit outside the main success measure. CSA is acknowledged in the strategy — but it still sits alongside VAWG, not within it as a core, funded delivery strand. That distinction matters. This isn’t about opposing progress. It’s about recognising that CSA is structurally different — and cannot be fixed by being absorbed into adjacent strategies, however well-intentioned. We’ve already had Independent Inquiry Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA). We already know the failures. We now have a CPA consultation on the table. Today shows what’s possible. The next step is to go further — and finally design systems that can see the children abused behind closed doors. #ImplementIICSA #ChildSexualAbuse #VAWG #ChildProtection #Safeguarding #PublicHealth #TraumaInformed #Survivors #Policy