12. The procedure adopted by the Inquiry is set out in Annex 1 to this report. Core participant status was granted under Rule 5 of the Inquiry Rules 2006 to five groups of victims and survivors, four individual victims and survivors^[1] and 11 institutions and other interested parties. The Inquiry held several preliminary hearings between 2016 and 2018, and substantive public hearings over 15 days between 26 November 2018 and 14 December 2018, with an additional hearing day on 15 January 2019.

13. We heard accounts from nine victims and survivors about their experiences of child sexual abuse at the institutions in the five case studies and their attempts to obtain accountability and reparations. An additional 32 victims and survivors provided written evidence of their experiences, with the majority of this evidence being read into the record either in full or by way of summary.

14. The Inquiry heard evidence from witnesses involved in the civil proceedings and criminal investigations that occurred in the case studies, including lawyers, insurers, police officers and local authorities. We also heard from the Ministry of Justice and from national organisations such as Rape Crisis, the Survivors Trust, the National Police Chiefs’ Council, the College of Policing and the Crown Prosecution Service.

15. Two core participants died during the course of this investigation: AR-A28 died in 2016 and AR-A6 died just before the hearings. AR-A27 was too ill to travel to give evidence.