Ministry of Health and successors: Inquiry into Child Abuse in Cleveland 1987: Report...

BN 68

1975-1989

This series contains records of the Inquiry into Child Abuse in Cleveland 1987.

The files comprise: transcripts of hearings; written evidence submitted by witnesses and interested parties; correspondence from members of the public; a few registered files in Department of Health NRE prefix series (liaison with Northern Health Region) and others with the non-departmental prefix CI (for Cleveland Inquiry); copies of local social services files on the children involved.

Public Record(s)

English

299 file(s)

Open unless otherwise stated

In 2001 Department of Health

Topics

Children

Transferred to the Department of Health in 1988

File series ran from 1987 to 1988

Series is accruing.

Duplicate material, newspaper and magazine cuttings, etc, have been destroyed.

In July 1987, following an unprecedentedly high incidence of the diagnosis of sexual child abuse in the county of Cleveland during May and June of that year, the Secretary of State for Social Services ordered that a statutory inquiry should be set up under s84 of the National Health Service Act 1977 and s76 of the Child Care Act 1980. The terms of reference of the Inquiry into Child Abuse in Cleveland were to examine the arrangements for dealing with suspected cases of child abuse in Cleveland since 1 January 1987, including in particular cases of child sexual abuse, and to make recommendations.

The Inquiry consisted of a chairman, Mrs Justice Butler-Sloss, and three assessors. The Inquiry lasted 74 days, from mid-August 1987 until the end of January 1988, and, although most of its hearings were in public, there were hearings held in private where evidence was given which would identify particular families.