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.
From 2014 ISN was funded solely by voluntary donations. From 2017, Islington Council provided funding to ISN to assist some of the main aspects of our work and we worked in co-production with the council in setting up a Support Service (The Non Recent Abuse Team) and the Islington Survivors Trauma Service based at St Pancras Hospital.
Since March 2026, all this funding was recklessly and suddenly cut by the council and despite all our campaigning we are very sad that we have not managed to reverse this decision. The council leader Una O’Halloran would not even meet with us to hear from survivors directly what the impact will be.
Richard Watts, former council leader in 2018, worked very well with us and set up excellent services with us – but now the council has no understanding of what he did and why he did it to ‘put to right the wrongs of the past’. The council officers in Adult Services talk of setting up ‘replacement’ services but there is no such thing. The services were developed with ISN over 10 years. Islington MIND are now being financed by the council for two years to employ one worker to respond to a phone helpline for survivors to provide some practical help and signpost survivors to other agencies – and this is the only service there will be. We will provide full details on this website and by emailing you when we get them.
ISN are trying to raise some funds to continue for at least one more year in order to create an archive of our research and all the work we have done since we set up 12 years ago. London Metropolitan University has agreed to create a public archive of our media coverage, inquiry reports and other public information. For the time being, ISN is keeping our office at the University and we are still seeing survivors who come forward and assist them in getting their files – though we no longer have a council officer to help us do this. The loss of good systems for accessing records makes us feel that we are returning to square one and all the expertise and sensitivity, that helped survivors to get their files, is no longer in place.
We also continue to work with civil litigation claims against the council working alongside Leigh Day solicitors. The specialist police team Operation Granbury has also closed and we continue to assist with a few ongoing cases working with the Child Abuse Investigation Team.
The Work of ISN
- Assisting survivors in applying for their childhood care files and recording survivor & witness accounts.
- Advocating for Islington survivors.
- Assisting survivors, through civil claims,to get 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.
- Working alongside police and local authorities in the investigation of alleged and known abusers and bringing them to justice.
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 has pieced together and any details you can share with ISN are important to add to the picture. 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.
A main part of our work has been research which supports survivor’s accounts of what happened in the children’s homes and foster placements. From survivor and former staff accounts, as well as from file evidence, media and council records 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 have collated many facts to help us add to what survivors tell us and these are all listed on this website. Many files and documents have gone missing, so what you remember is very important. Perhaps you even have photographs to add to our extensive archive. The research has helped survivors in many ways – in understanding their files, helping to inform therapy, getting the council support payment of £10,000 (now closed), seeking civil claims for compensation, making reports to police and in obtaining council services such as housing. We have also been able to inform the local press and both the Gazette and the Tribune have given ISN a great deal of coverage and support.
Please do check out our NEWS page on this website as we will use it to keep you informed of the current changes.
See our ISN News page for recent updates and developments
Islington Survivors Network 