The Inquiry is investigating how organisations in England and Wales may have failed to protect children from sexual abuse. The focus is on the failure of those organisation.

When we say the ‘failure of the organisation’, it means you were abused on the organisation’s property or grounds, or you first came into contact with the person who abused you in an organisation, or someone from the organisation knew what was happening, or you told someone in authority (such as a social worker, teacher, priest or police officer) and nothing was done to stop the abuse.
When we say ‘organisation’ we mean a range of things. These include, but are not limited to:

• Children’s homes
• Schools
• Children’s clubs such as sports or activity clubs
• Youth detention centres
• Churches or religious organisations
• Media
• The Armed Forces
• Charities
• Social services, the police, and other government run services or organisations
• Or any similar institution.

Perhaps one or more of these examples apply to you. Or you may have suffered sexual abuse by a family member, or friend of the family, or even someone you didn’t know and, when you reported it, this was not responded to appropriately.

This means that someone in authority failed to act on signs of abuse and that you were let down by an organisation who had a duty of care to protect you.
Whatever your experience, you can help the Inquiry by telling us what happened to you.