In Summary
Produced in partnership by Knowing Works CIC and Survivors in Transition together, this research compares findings from national surveys undertaken in 2015 and 2025, exploring survivors’ experiences of abuse, disclosure, reporting, recovery and support.
Trigger warning: Our report includes references to people’s experiences of childhood sexual abuse. If you need support, please visit the Survivors in Transition website at www.survivorsintransition.co.uk/resources to find useful links and resources.
Focus on Survivors is a significant national report by Knowing Works CIC and Survivors in Transition exploring how adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) experience services and support.
The research details the experiences of 243 adult survivors of CSA from across the UK, including their experiences of making disclosures, reporting, recovery and support. It compares survivors’ experiences in 2025 with those captured a decade earlier, highlighting both progress and challenges, and showing where systems still need to change.
Click here to download the full report (PDF).
What does the report tell us about survivors experiences?
“It’s already exhausting surviving – then, you have to navigate systems.”
Survivors had continued to face long-term and complex recoveries, often finding it difficult to find the support they need amidst lengthy and traumatising criminal justice proceedings. At the same time, findings suggest improved access to support in the decade. For example, more respondents indicated they had accessed support from specialist sexual abuse services (up from 44% to 79%).
- Comments consistently identified the importance of flexible, specialist, and trauma-informed support.
- Half had reported abuse to the police, which is a 20% increase over what survivors indicated a decade previously.
- In total, 29% of survivors had accessed support within five years, but many waited much longer than this. The whole-sample average was 15 years (down five years from what was reported as the whole-sample average a decade previously).
- Use of Independent Sexual Violence Advisor (ISVA) services increased by almost a third compared with a decade ago.
Please download our full report to explore comments from survivors and our detailed results.
A series of clear mandates from survivors
The findings and comments provide important evidence for health services, commissioners, criminal justice agencies, policymakers and the voluntary sector, alongside clear messages from survivors about what needs to change.
- For commissioners and funders: “Stop commissioning services as if recovery has an end date. Fund recovery for as long as recovery takes.”
- For the NHS: “Stop waiting for survivors to disclose. Simply – Ask. Listen. Validate. Refer.”
- For criminal justice: “Justice is not only about an outcome. Communication and specialist support are fundamental to keeping us engaged.”
- For the voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise sector: “Stop behaving like the margins of the system. You are central to survivor recovery. Lead with confidence, evidence and a collective voice.”
Please download the full report for more details.
Responses to this report
Kate Davies CBE (National Director for Health, Justice, and Sexual Assault Services at NHS England) said:
“The experiences described throughout this report reinforce what we increasingly understand across health and justice, that recovery from child sexual abuse is often non-linear, deeply individual and requires coordinated support across organisational boundaries.
“My hope is that this report is not simply read but acted upon – especially where things haven’t changed or got worse over the last 10 years. It offers all of us an opportunity to listen, to learn and to work together to ensure that every survivor receives the compassionate, specialist and joined-up support they so deserve.”
Fiona Ellis OBE, Chief Executive (Survivors in Transition) said:
“When we first undertook Focus on Survivors in 2015, it challenged many assumptions about childhood sexual abuse and what survivors needed from services. Ten years later, it is encouraging to see evidence of progress, but what is most striking is how consistently survivors are still telling us what they need: to be heard, believed and respected, to be asked rather than carrying the burden of disclosure alone, and to have access to specialist support for as long as recovery requires.
“This report gives health, justice, commissioners and the voluntary sector a very clear mandate. Our responsibility now is not simply to acknowledge what 243 survivors have told us, but to demonstrate what we will do differently as a result.”
Wendy Herber, Independent Chair (Knowing Works CIC) said:
“As a national organisation that grew from, and still hosts, a local Healthwatch service, we passionately believe the only way to shape effective services is with those who need and use them. We chose to do this work not simply to understand survivors’ experiences, but to shape better services that meet need and reduce wasted, damaging costs. This report clearly demonstrates how important that is.
“In this report, survivors tell us what helps and what hurts, what makes a difference and what is wasted. While the report highlights significant progress over the past decade, it also shows how systems and services can create additional pressures and complexities for people whose lives have already been deeply affected by the lifelong impact of child abuse.
“The messages and mandate from survivors are clear: hear them, believe them, and respect them- however hard that feels or hard-pressed we are. The responsibility for all of us, across every sector, is to be ready to ask, listen, and signpost people to the right support. The challenge to our health and care system is to ensure services that deliver impact for survivors are available and sustainably funded.
“Ten years on, Focus on Survivors remains a powerful call to strengthen our collective commitment to helping people access specialist and trauma-informed support, and to ensure survivors get the long-term help they need.”