4. Support services are provided by the public, private and voluntary sectors.^[1] Although this chapter focuses on the arrangement of support services for victims and survivors during criminal investigations and civil proceedings, we heard that, in practice, victims and survivors used multiple routes to access support and would do so at various points during their lives. Often, this was through their GPs,^[2] but victims and survivors also sought support from or with the assistance of their families,^[3] police officers, prison officers^[4] and local support groups.^[5]

5. There was variation in the availability and type of support services in the case studies, and in whether victims and survivors could or did use them. Generally, there is a ‘postcode lottery’ in the provision of local services,^[6] and a gap between the need for support services and the ability of those services to meet the need.^[7] Funding issues inevitably played a critical role in whether support was available.^[8]

6. Most victims and survivors who gave evidence in the case studies were men who had been sexually abused while they were children in care but we heard there were difficulties with the provision of support services for men. Nigel O’Mara, a counsellor, said that the development of services for men has occurred more recently than those for women, and the result was that there was a lack of coverage and organisation within male services.^[9] Melissa Case, Director of Criminal and Family Justice Policy at the Ministry of Justice, said that there may be a need for funding to catch up with the increased numbers of cases reported by men, and that male survivors may wish to access different services. Nigel O’Mara agreed that such differences do occur. Melissa Case explained that this was an area that the Ministry of Justice was continuing to look at.^[10] Over time, there has been improvement on this issue.^[11]

7. Fay Maxted, Chief Executive Officer of the Survivors Trust, observed that the vast majority of their member services^[12] do offer comparable services to male victims and survivors.^[13] Lee Eggleston, a member of the board of trustees of Rape Crisis England & Wales,^[14] described improvement on this issue, with the recent formation of the Male Survivors Partnership. Both agreed that the problem is that there are not enough services for everyone.^[15]

8. In its Interim Report, the Inquiry established that one of the challenges to understanding systemic issues in relation to the provision of support services is the lack of accurate information on current expenditure levels. The Inquiry recommended that the UK and Welsh governments work to establish current levels of expenditure, and the effectiveness of that expenditure, on services for child victims and adult survivors of child sexual abuse in England and Wales.^[16] The recommendation has been accepted by the UK and Welsh governments. Furthermore, the Sexual Assault and Abuse Services (SAAS) Partnership Board, which is responsible for governance of the government’s Strategic Direction for Sexual Assault and Abuse Services,^[17] has agreed to supervise the implementation of this recommendation in England, with a view to presenting its findings to the Inquiry later in 2019.^[18] The Inquiry awaits the outcome of this work with interest.