‘Survivors showed significant improvements in trauma symptoms. depression, anxiety, wellbeing and self reassurance’. (Presentation. ‘Supporting survivors of institutional child abuse: a quantitative service evaluation of the Islington Survivors Trauma Service’. 09.02.2026. St Pancras Hospital Trauma Service).
‘Service designed with me in mind’
‘Time and space to heal’
‘Unearthing what was once covered up’
‘When I need you you’re there’
‘Safety within a therapeutic relationship’
(Presentation of qualitative research.’Held in Safe Hands – what Survivors need from Services‘. 09.02.26. St Pancras Hospital Trauma Service).
Just some of the feedback from over 200 Islington Survivors who accessed this excellent, specialist Trauma Service. The psychologists acknowledged to survivors that the abuse was not their fault but that what was so wrong for them was the abuse they had experienced as children in Islington’s institutional placements.
It is a tragedy that this service has been closed abruptly by the commissioners Islington Council after 10 years. For all the survivors for whom it was a lifeline – as and when they needed it – this decision is devastating. Before closure, the team of psychologists carried out both quantitative and qualitative research to put on record an evaluation of this unique, innovative, flexible and survivor-led service. When it is published we will post it on this website.
Each year, ISN campaigned for this service to be extended and through media pressure we kept it open in 2025. But in March 26 it was closed forever.
We thank all the staff who gave their energy and skill to this service, working alongside ISN in making sure it worked well for survivors. For the survivors still coming forward to ISN, we are very sad that they cannot access this service which had very little or no waiting list, whose staff responded so quickly to calls and where survivors could access the therapy when most needed. The team supported survivors with issues raised from reading their childhood care files. When the Islington Council Support Payment Scheme treated them with such little sensitivity and some survivors had to find their way through an inappropriate appeal system – then the team were there for them to turn to and helped them to get through the retraumatising effect of the process.
This is an ending we did not expect because Sarah Morgan QC when she conducted her council financed Review, in 2018, wrote, ‘Many will need access to specialist counselling or therapy, some will be ready to take that up as soon as it is offered, some may not be ready to take it up yet but may find that they are in a few years. It must still be available to them when they are ready’. The survivors called a number directly but now they will have to go via a GP and the waiting list will be anything from a year to 18 months. The generic Trauma Service available is not a specialist resource for survivors of child abuse in Islington’s institutional care. Sarah Morgan QC said she was struck, ‘by the life long and continuing effects on those who were abused‘ and could see the ‘enduring harm and the continuing need for help‘. She added, ‘the direct contact I had with victims and survivors helped me understand, in a way I had not previously, the need to be able to trust that what is being offered will be enough and will not be taken away‘.
It has now been taken away.
Kris Akabusi, Olympic medallist, who grew up in an Islington children’s home said, ‘the council is wiping its hands of the young people abused in its care. At 67 I’ve lived my life. I’ve got coping strategies and mechanisms, and the decision to deny it all and hide it all worked very well as a way of operating in the world. Only recently have I started engaging with the therapeutic services that the council offered that are coming to an end in March‘. (Islington Tribune 16.01.26).
Council officers now speak of a ‘trauma informed’ service being on offer to survivors from Islington MIND, but ISN is very clear that this is in no way comparable to the specialist Trauma Therapy service service that was developed over the past 10 years for and with survivors of abuse in Islington’s institutions.
ISN Survivors Feedback in 2018
“They didn’t judge me. I thought they wouldn’t understand what I’d been through because they are young but they did because they listened.”
“They’ve given me help to manage my anxiety. I’ve had panic attacks for 30 years and now I have tried what they suggested and it worked.”
“I’ve never done anything like this before but they understand why I’m angry.”
ISN wish to acknowledge the commitment and persistence of Richard Watts, Islington council leader, who commissioned this service in 2017 and supported it until he left in May 2021. He listened to survivors, met frequently with us and established a co-production basis with ISN in the delivery of the services from the start. We hope other local authorities will follow his example.
Press coverage of the closure
New pain for survivors of care scandal. Survivors told funding for lifeline help to be removed by council Islington Tribune 9.1.26
Olympic star Kriss. Council is wiping its hands of young people abused in its care. Islington Tribune 16.1.26
Survivors of abuse scandal ‘ feel like they’ve got nobody’ as support is cut. Islington Tribune 10.10.26
Islington Survivors Network 