Mrs M, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse takes the bold step of waiving partial anonymity to share her experience of pursuing justice in the form of a civil compensation claim.
Children that are placed in foster care are often at their most vulnerable. It is hard to imagine how confusing and bewildering it must be to be placed with strangers in unfamiliar homes and surroundings. Many children have come from abusive environments or have suffered the loss of parents. For many children, their memories of foster care are positive ones. Sadly, for some children, their experience in foster care is one of fear and abuse.
It has been 4 years since the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Armes V Nottinghamshire County Council, enabling victims of abuse by foster carers to seek financial redress from the local authority which placed them in foster care.
Until last week, the law has failed children who have been abused whilst in foster care, providing them with no avenue for financial redress though the civil courts in the form of abuse compensation. Local authorities could only be held to be legally responsible if negligence was proved, but that is notoriously difficult in abuse cases. This left many survivors of abuse in foster care with no legal remedy whatsoever.
