Dr Liz Davies

SURVIVORS of Islington’s child abuse scandal only have one year left to apply for a £10,000 support payment, amid warnings the Town Hall could be doing more to widen access to the scheme.

The support payment scheme, which opened in May last year, offers £10,000 to every Islington child who suffered abuse while in care homes during the “worst chapter” of Islington’s history.

As of this week, applicants only have one year left to submit their statements to the scheme before it closes.

According to a council press release published to mark the one-year anniversary of the opening of the scheme, the Town Hall has so far made 155 payments to survivors, totalling £1.535million.

Anyone who was abused in care between 1966 and 1995 can apply. The Town Hall has said it “particularly welcomes more applications from people from black and Asian communities”.

But Islington Survivor’s Network (ISN), an independent group that has long campaigned for justice for the victims of the child abuse scandal, is asking why the council hasn’t done more to advertise the scheme.

Dr Liz Davies, founder of ISN, is calling on the council to do more to advertise the scheme outside of Islington, in places like Bournemouth, Hertfordshire, Stevenage and Harlow, where many Islington children were sent, and survivors are known to have settled.

Dr Davies would also like to see the council working “more collabora­tively” with ISN going forward.

“We were supposed to have regular review meetings. I think we’ve only had one proper review, which came quite late in the day. They’re not involving us on an ongoing basis,” she said.

ISN has worked with survivors over many years, gathering informa­tion on the crimes com­mitted, including precise information on the people involved in the abuse, and the care homes in which the abuse took place.

Dr Davies warned resources are being wasted because the council and ISN often duplicate work, with both services taking statements from survivors. “We’ve met these people, we know their stories,” she said. “We could do it between us.”

According to Dr Davies, ISN has so far worked with 190 survivors to help them submit their applications to the scheme, including help with accessing their case files, filling in forms and supporting them through trauma.

Of those 190 ISN has worked with, some 143 have received support payments so far. But Dr Davies has warned time is running out for some: “We’ve had a few with life-limiting illness… we’ve lost a few people along the way,” she said.

“It’s not what I thought it would be,” Dr Davies said of the scheme.

A spokesperson for Islington Council said it had advertised the scheme in health services, GPs, and housing providers among other places and had featured an article on the scheme in the council magazine.

“There will be further communications promoting the scheme to more communities, both inside and outside Islington, in the coming months,” they said.