EXCLUSIVE: Historic Lambeth child abuse survivors fuming that some will miss out because they were fostered but did not go through homes

Survivors of child abuse are fuming that some of them have been excluded from a historic compensation scheme.

Residents placed in foster care during the period when paedophiles infested Lambeth Town Hall have been told they may not qualify for Lambeth’s Redress Scheme.

Town Hall leaders have decreed only survivors who were first placed in homes – then sent into foster care – will get compensation.

An unprecedented alliance of opposition councillors failed in a bid to change this policy at a meeting of Lambeth council on Wednesday September 22. Conservative councillor Cllr Tim Briggs put forward a motion to try and change the criteria for compensation and it was supported by the main opposition Green party.

And the Shirley Oaks Survivors Association (SOSA) says the scheme Lambeth want to implement would discriminate against many black former foster children.

Raymond Stevenson of SOSA said: “Lambeth told us all foster children would qualify for the scheme. 

“An unintended consequence of not allowing those who went straight into foster care is that it would discriminate against some foster children, many of whom are black. Lambeth told us their criteria would follow the law on who it is responsible for – but the law changed soon after the redress scheme was announced. So the council should be adapting the scheme to the law change. This would mean they are responsible for all foster children – rather than discriminating against some survivors with the eligibility criteria.”

SOSA members are all the more furious because Lambeth agreed with a survivors’ lawyer that the relevant law change, in 2017, would affect the scheme. A letter from Lambeth head of legal services Alison McKane in October 2017, obtained by the South London Press, said: “The Council is aware of the recent Supreme Court decision and is currently considering how the Redress Scheme needs to be amended to reflect the fact that Lambeth is now vicariously liable for abuse committed by foster carers.”

But a letter to the council about tonight’s Green/Tory motion from Lisa Gafarov says: “The current scheme summarily restrict the foster carer abuse to cover only children leaving a Lambeth children’s home directly into foster care. This does not match the findings of the Armes case which imposes vicarious liability on the council for foster carer abuse because the council will have had powers of approval, including safeguarding checks.”

The company represents hundreds of victims of the 800 who have so far come forward.

Green Party Cllr, Scott Ainslie (Streatham, St Leonards ward) said: “Why is the law not being consistently applied under the Redress Scheme? This is not within the spirit of the scheme and it is unjust to leave any abused child, of which the council was a corporate parent, out of the scheme.”