About Us

Survivors of child abuse in Islington children’s homes and foster care campaigning for justice

We’re on the move!

There’s been so many things that’s held us down

But now it looks like things are finally comin’ around.

I know we’ve got a long way to go and where we’ll end up, I don’t know.

But we won’t let nothing’ hold us back, we’re putting ourselves together, we’ re polishing up our act!

If you felt we’ve been held down before, I know you’ll refuse to be held down anymore!

Don’t you let nothing stand in your way!

I want ya’all to listen, listen to every word I say, every word I say!

Ain’t no stopping us now!

We’re on the move!

McFadden and Whitehead

Bobby Martin (1964-2018) Director of Islington Survivors Network said this was his favourite song during his early teenage years when he was so severely abused in Islington children’s homes.

‘If it wasn’t for Bobby Martin, I don’t believe I would ever have had the strength to speak out and to speak out in the manner I did.   Bobby taught me that feeling “angry” is not a crime.  It is instead a reflection of self-worth. He and all of us who had to live under that regime, had and still have, a right to be angry‘ (ISN survivor)

‘I knew Bobby personally, he was, as is reported, a bright and wily person, he told me he had been a resident of Elwood Street and mixed with boys from Colgrain. He cared about people too; expressing pity for a local youth who had died with mental health issues. Bobby “had the saddest eyes, that would go dark and desolate like a lost dog when he was uncertain of you or what you were about”  (ISN survivor)

Islington Survivors Network (ISN) began in 2016 and set up in January 2017 as a non profit making company which now has 3 survivor/directors, and 2 coordinators. There were 42 children’s homes run by Islington Council between the 60s and the 90s and ISN have now heard from over 800 survivors as well as former staff who have come forward as witnesses

‘ 25 years have gone and passed but still Islington Council run away from the past.

But you got an answer at Islington’s pit (town hall culpability at last). I stood and challenged and run them round good For my Islington survivors with eyes dimly lit.

Challenging with anger and fury I bid Because that’s the only way to make clear what they did !

Islington survivors I love to the core As taking away my isolation I’m not so lonely no more!’

ISN Survivor from his poem ‘ Just Ice’

Survivors get in contact mainly through personal recommendation from other survivors who pass on our details. Word spreads fast. Some contact us via the website and leave a message on the voicemail. We receive this message on our email and respond quickly. Where possible we arrange to call or meet up. We meet at our office in London Metropolitan University, on Holloway Road in Islington which is quiet, safe and accessible.

My dream is to end the pain

ISN Survivor

---

---

POEM: You laughed at my weaknesses

You laughed at my weaknesses – So I feared to show them

You trampled on my dreams – So I dreamed alone

You were too busy to listen – So I never spoke

You handled my secrets – Indiscreetly – So I ceased to share them

You were insensitive to my needs – So I hid them from you

You never seemed to understand – So I stopped trying to communicate

You hurt me by your indifference – So I bled inwardly

You wouldn’t let me hear you – So I kept my distance

You cared for my physical needs – So my soul became impoverished

You drove me into myself -So now I am imprisoned

ISN Survivor

Reflection

Since childhood I have had time to reflect on my life and have reviewed and questioned every memory, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

You can put those memories to one side however they creep back in when you do not expect them in everyday life, you realise they will always be there, the pain and the hurt, however you can never turn the clock back, and you realise that family and friendships you had and loved dearly are gone, and gone forever. 

You may have photos and letters to remember, they are pieces of paper with a connection to who you were, and the man and dreams you once had and aspired too, and then you think about what might have been. 

You can see looking around you people are smiling and happy, and families are sharing celebrations and the bonds between siblings’ parents and extended families are loving and real, they are not all thinking about the bad and the ugly, they feel safe.

What might have been my life and what would I have achieved ? 

ISN Survivor

Our priority is to help Islington survivors to find healing and also to achieve justice which might be through seeking financial compensation and an apology from the council or through police action in prosecuting abusers. Our first step after speaking with survivors, is usually to access their childhood care files from Islington Council.

---

This includes research and supporting ISN in the co-production of survivor support services with Islington Council and the Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust. Please note we are not in co-production with the Support Payment Scheme

Five Main Strands – The Work of ISN

1. Working in co-production with Islington Council in the delivery of support and trauma services for Islington Survivors of non recent child abuse.
2. Assisting survivors in applying for their childhood care files and, when needed, creating timelines of evidence from the file content and survivor & witness accounts.
3. Supporting and advocating for Islington survivors in claiming;
   1. Individual financial compensation from Islington Council for all forms of child abuse (sexual, physical, emotional and/or neglect) experienced in Islington children’s homes and foster placements.
   2. A payment of £10,000 from the Islington Council Support Payment Scheme announced on 18th March 2021 by the council Executive Committee launched on 31st May 2022. Over 250 survivors have now received payment through ISN.
4. Working alongside police and local authorities  in the investigation of alleged and known abusers and bringing them to justice. ISN also call to account those ‘enablers’ who were paid to protect but facilitated the abuse, remained silent and often maintained the secrecy of crimes committed.
5. Acquiring, collating and publishing the history of the Islington child abuse scandal between the 1960’s and 1990’s to analyse the role played by pro-paedophile groups and self professed networks of paedophiles in the abuse of Islington children placed in the care of Islington Council.

ISN Would Like To Hear From You

You might be reading this because you;

• are a survivor of child abuse within Islington children’s homes  and/or other children’s placements made by Islington Council
• are a witness of child abuse within Islington children’s homes and/or other children’s placements made by Islington Council
• are a friend, relative or parent of a child abused in an Islington children’s home and/or other children’s placements made by Islington Council
• are a professional who was employed to keep children in Islington’s care safe from harm and respond to their needs
• worked in an Islington children’s home, foster placement  or social work office perhaps as a cook, cleaner, driver, residential care worker, inspector or administrator
• were a politician who held relevant responsibility at the time
• were a journalist who investigated Islington child abuse issues in the 60s-90s.

Contact ISN if you are a victim of, or witness to, child abuse (physical, sexual, emotional abuse or neglect) in;

• an Islington council run children’s home
• an Islington fostering or adoption placement
• a secure unit, private children’s home or boarding school where children were placed by Islington Council
• a holiday setting organised by Islington council
• the context of a network of organised abuse of children in Islington

ISN know that organised, powerful, networks of child abusers operated across the country, including within Islington. It’s a big jigsaw ISN is piecing together and all details you can share with ISN are important. We aim to protect children now from harm and your evidence might help to do that if the alleged abuser is alive and still in contact with children and their families or even working in the children’s workforce.

ISN have been asked by the council to try and work out how many children were in Islington’s care system from the 60s to the 90s. We are calculating this from survivor and staff accounts as well as from file evidence, media and council records. To date we have identified over 2000 children and also over 1500 residential care staff who lived or worked during that time in the 41 Islington children’s homes. The homes were mainly situated within the north of the Borough of Islington but also in Hertfordshire, Enfield and Essex.

Some children were moved between many different homes and foster placements and also staff worked across different children’s homes. At times when the child abuse was exposed, it seemed a common management response to close the establishment, move the staff around and split the children between different homes or secure units.

If you did not witness abuse but have knowledge which can help survivors, then please help us collect information about the children’s homes, the buildings, incidents, regimes, the children who were resident there and staff who worked in them. We are trying to put facts and dates together to help us add to what survivors tell us. Many files and documents have gone missing, so what you remember is very important. Perhaps you even have photographs. We are interested to know about any regular visitors to the children’s homes who had access to the children. We also want to build a clear picture of the regimes in different children’s homes including what forms of ‘discipline’ or ‘pin down’ (a brutal form of ‘restraint’) were used. 

Some Islington care leavers speak of good experiences in care and do not define themselves as survivors of child abuse. It is just as important that we hear about the positives as well as about the abuse. Sometimes things changed for the better or worse when a new manager came into post or a new member of staff joined the team. This is all helpful information for us.

---

See our ISN News page for recent updates and developments