Sexual assaults/incidents

Please provide the following information:

a) The number of staff employed at your Trust’s Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) for the years 2010 - 2024.

Response: Please note that our Trust does not directly deliver the SARC service. The Havens provide this service independently. For further information on staffing or related queries, please contact The Havens directly at The Havens through their website.

b) The number of children aged under 18 years old who have received support from your Trust’s SARC between the years 2010 - 2024 and, if possible, the number of these who are identified as having been victims of gang-based child sexual exploitation (CSE).

Response: Please note that our Trust does not directly deliver the SARC service. The Havens provide this service independently. For information relating to the number of children supported and details concerning victims of gang-based CSE, please contact The Havens directly through their website.

c) The number of victims of CSE who received mental health support from your Trust between 2018 and 2024.

Response: Thank you for your Freedom of Information request regarding the number of victims of CSE who received mental health support from our Trust between 2018 and 2024.

Please note that while our Trust provides mental health services, we do not hold specific data that identifies victims of CSE separately within these services. Additionally, the SARC service is provided independently by The Havens.

For information regarding victims of CSE who received support through the SARC, please contact The Havens directly through their website.

d) The number of children identified by your Trust as requiring safeguarding measures as a result of CSE between the years 2010 and 2024.

Response: Thank you for your Freedom of Information request regarding the number of children identified by our Trust as requiring safeguarding measures as a result of child sexual exploitation (CSE) between 2010 and 2024.

The Trust has robust policies and procedures in place for safeguarding children. When a child is identified as being at risk of or affected by CSE, referrals are made directly to Children’s Social Care (the Local Authority), which is the appropriate body responsible for safeguarding and case management. As such, the Local Authority may hold the specific data you are seeking.

Please also note that support for victims of CSE may be provided through the Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) services. In our area, The Havens delivers these services independently. For further information relating to CSE cases managed or supported through SARC, we recommend contacting The Havens directly via their website.

Under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2000, please provide me with the following information about incidents of sexual harm and physical violence that have taken place at your trust. Incidents of sexual violence include, but are not limited to, sexual harassment, sexual abuse, sexual assault, and rape. (See after the question for clarification on these definitions.)

To assist you, I understand that some, if not all, of this information should be recorded in the trust’s safety incident reporting system, or it may be recorded by your Human Resources (HR) team.

If possible, please use one of the attached spreadsheets to provide your answers. Please also explain any gaps in your data. Please ensure that the data you provide is for financial years, not calendar years.

• Total sexual safety incidents

1.1 How many sexual safety incidents did the Trust record in the financial year 2024-25? (This includes incidents by all alleged perpetrators against all alleged victims: staff, patients, visitors, members of the public)

Response: 282

1.​​​​​​2 How many of these incidents took place on the Trust premises?

Response: 272

1.3 How many sexual safety incidents on the Trust premises did the Trust record in the financial year 2023-24?

Response: 273

1.4 How many sexual safety incidents on the Trust premises did the Trust record in the financial year 2022-23?

Response: 263

• Sexual safety incidents by staff against patients

2. How many sexual safety incidents allegedly perpetrated by staff against patients did the trust record in the 2024/25 financial year?

Response: Zero

• Sexual violence and misconduct by patients against other patients

3. How many sexual safety incidents allegedly perpetrated by patients against other patients did the trust record in the 2024-25 financial year?

• Sexual safety incidents by patients against staff

Response: 10

4. How many sexual safety incidents allegedly perpetrated by patients against staff did the trust record in the 2024-25 financial year?

Sexual safety incidents by staff against other staff

Response: 203

5. How many sexual safety incidents allegedly perpetrated by staff against other staff did the trust record in the 2024-25 financial year?

• Age of alleged victims

Please provide figures for the 2024-25 financial year:

Response: The Trust will not be disclosing this information on the grounds of cost, as locating and extracting the information will exceed the cost limit. You may be aware that under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, a public authority is not obliged to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit. The appropriate limit for the NHS is £450 (based on £25 per person per hour to locate and extract the requested data. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending more than 18 hours, as we have established that providing this information would require a manual audit of relevant records to be carried out.

Please find more information about section 12 on the gov.uk website.

6. How many of the sexual safety incidents did the trust record where the victim was a patient:

6.1 Under 18 (this includes under 16 and under 13) 

Response: Zero

6.2 Under 16 (this includes under 13)  

Response: Zero

6.3 Under 13

Response: Zero

Only include incidents that occurred on the Trust's premises.

• Physical violence

7. How many incidents of physical violence perpetrated by patients against staff did the trust record in the 2024-25 financial year?

Response: 601

7.1 Do the Trust's records of physical violence by patients distinguish between intentional/deliberate and un/unintentional violence? (Unintentional violence might be due to a lack of capacity, for example, a symptom of dementia.)

Response: The reporting system does not capture details to distinguish incidents of physical violence by patients as intentional/deliberate or unintentional/non-deliberate.

7.2 If the Trust does break down physical violence into intentional/deliberate and un/unintentional violence, please provide the following data for the 2024-25 financial year:

• Number of intentional/deliberate incidents of physical violence by patients against staff
• Number of un/non-intentional violence incidents of physical violence by patients against staff.

​​​​​​​Response: The reporting system does not capture details to distinguish incidents of physical violence by patients as intentional/deliberate or unintentional/non-deliberate.

If the decision is made to withhold some of this data using exemptions in the Data Protection Act, please inform me of that fact and cite the exemptions used.