Coalition urges Burnham to act after data reveals scale of child-on-child sexual abuse in schools

Why This Matters

• The figures suggest that, every day, nearly five sexual offences against children aged 12 and under are recorded at schools in England and Wales, with recorded cases likely representing only a fraction of actual abuse.
• The letter puts direct political pressure on the government to turn its manifesto pledge to halve violence against women and girls into measurable change in education.
• For families and schools, the findings raise immediate questions about how peer-on-peer abuse is identified, reported and prevented.

Background

Concerns about child-on-child abuse in English schools have a long public history. A 2016 inquiry by the women and equalities committee found sexual harassment and violence were endemic in schools. In 2020 the Everyone's Invited platform gathered mass testimonials from young people, which led to an Ofsted review concluding that every school and college leader should act on the assumption that sexual harassment and online abuse are problems for their pupils. The new letter argues these moments did not produce lasting change and warns that official data underestimates the problem because most abuse goes unreported.

Key Perspectives

Campaign groups and academics: The 87 signatory organisations argue the police data exposes a systemic failure and that children's right to learn in safety is being violated. They want the government's violence against women and girls target applied urgently in schools. Lawyers and abuse experts: The Guardian's reporting cites experts who say most perpetrators are likely fellow pupils, and that most victims are girls. This frames the problem as peer-on-peer abuse requiring school-level prevention, not just criminal justice responses. Sceptics of the data: The police records are incomplete: most reports do not record the alleged perpetrator's age, and the letter itself says most abuse is unreported. That means the true scale cannot be precisely established from these figures, though the uncertainty points to under-counting rather than exaggeration.

What to Watch

• The government's response to the letter and whether it announces new school-based measures on sexual violence and harassment.
• Any statement from the Department for Education in response to the investigation and the coalition letter.
• Whether police recording improves so that future data identifies the age of alleged perpetrators, which would clarify the true scale of child-on-child abuse.