An ambitious vision for preventing child sexual abuse: meet our new trustees

07 August 2024

The role of a trustee is incredibly important: they are responsible for the governance of a charity and making sure it is run well. Getting the right people with the right mix of skills on the board of trustees means a charity has a better chance of fulfilling its mission.

Recently, we spoke to our new Chair of Trustees Jane Leach, and newly appointed trustees Martin Kersey, Fred Langford and John O’Brien CBE. We talked about their wealth of experience, their commitment to preventing child sexual abuse and their ambitions for the future of the Lucy Faithfull Foundation.

Facing the reality of child sexual abuse

“Sadly, child sexual abuse is all around us and it’s not going away,” said Jane. “But the more people talk about it, and the more we raise awareness of it, the more we can work to prevent it. If I can contribute, that’s what I will do.”

Jane is a Chartered Accountant and Senior Advisor at The Bank of England with over 30 years of experience working in finance.

“One of the things I learned from outgoing Chair of Trustees Mike Harris was to build a strong team,” she said. “It’s important to have a set of strong people around you to call on and talk things through.”

“I feel the role of a trustee is to ensure that the organisation has a definable strategy, good governance, and is able to support staff through different experiences,” added Martin, an experienced HR professional with global experience in private and not-for-profit organisations. “This is what good organisational culture looks like.”

If staff are supported, then they can deliver LFF’s aim to do everything we can to stop child sexual abuse – before it happens.

Addressing the root cause of abuse

“It is vital that we reach the people who need us and we provide a space where they can talk to us free from judgement,” said Jane. “It’s crucial that we place the onus for preventing abuse on those that may cause harm. It is not up to children to protect themselves.”

“We need to keep being brave about how we tackle these issues, particularly when dealing with the issue of child sexual abuse at the source, through our work with those who may offend.”

Fred Langford, Director Technology – Online Safety at Ofcom, agreed that to protect children we must address the root cause – the people who offend.

“You have to work with those who offend, or are at risk of offending, to help them address their feelings and urges if you’re going to protect children,” he said.

“We know that many people who offend online tell themselves that they’re not actually offending against real children – this is especially true of generative AI.”

“The impacts of our increasingly online world can be devastating and it’s important for tech companies to take more responsibility,” said Martin. Coming from a tech-focused background, Fred said that he hopes to leverage his tech understanding and contacts to help LFF move into a new era.

“Prevention is everybody’s responsibility”

John O’Brien has considerable experience both in the public and private sector, notably as Secretary to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) following a stellar career with the Home Office.

He said that, having been involved in public protection policy for many years and hearing first-hand the accounts of victims and survivors during the IICSA Inquiry, he has seen the lifelong impact of child sexual abuse.

“I think there are lots of people out there doing a really great job of sweeping up the mess but there is almost nobody trying to prevent the mess happening in the first place,” said John. “LFF gets on with the job of taking those difficult calls, dealing with the consequences both for those at risk of offending but also for the families. So, I jumped at the chance to become a trustee.”

“I’ve worked for two decades in what we now call safeguarding, I know there’s a lack of information about perpetrators and the work that LFF does to understand the pathways to offending is crucial to developing strategies to prevent the offending.”

“I can only imagine how devastating it must be for a family to find out a loved one has offended. And I just think it’s vital that we have an organisation that provides support to people in that time of need.”

Martin said that it’s important that as a society we open our eyes to the life-changing consequences of abuse, which is what LFF’s work is all about. Fred agreed, adding that talking about this issue is not palatable, but it’s essential.

“My message to anyone who needs help is to call the helpline today,” he said. “Advisors can help you put a plan of action in place to address your thoughts or behaviour. Keep going – keep persevering.”

“Prevention is key and prevention is everybody’s responsibility.”

Big ambitions

Looking to the future, the trustees identified delivering on our three strategic pillars: reaching everyone who needs support; researching to ensure interventions are effective; and advocating for a public health approach to preventing child sexual abuse.

“We should be proud that we engage with the types of subjects we tackle,” said John. “We should shout it from the rooftops. We need to bring LFF into the mainstream. That would be my ambition.”

“The future of this organisation lies in its research, which impacts on policy and educating the public about how to prevent child sexual abuse,” said Martin.

John highlighted another area for close attention over the coming years. “Fundraising for organisations like the Lucy Faithfull Foundation is always going to be tough and we have to fight hard for support,” he said. “We need to recognise that and prepare for that challenge.”

All the trustees paid tribute to LFF staff for their incredible commitment. “Thank you for the difficult challenges that you face every day,” said Jane. “And thank you for helping to bring about the change that’s needed to prevent child sexual abuse.”

“To those that need our help, the message is simple: we are ready to talk to you.”

Find out more

See our full list of trustees and read about our five-year strategy.

Want to support our work to prevent child sexual abuse? Donate now.

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