Our Story

• A staggering ONE IN TEN children experience sexual abuse before the AGE OF 16, that is the equivalent to THREE CHILDREN IN EVERY CLASSROOM.
• ONE IN THREE children NEVER disclose abuse, and others face huge barriers to stop them sharing. Intra-familial abuse is a massive barrier to, clouded with complicated emotions like loyalty, love, fear and a wish to protect other family members.
• OVER 90% of abuse cases are committed by a family member or people known to the family (Radford, 2011). Statistically speaking, the stranger-danger narrative around child sexual abuse only accounts for a mere 10% of sexual abuse cases.
• Evidence shows teachers are arguably the most trusted adult in society outside of the home. Children are more likely to disclose to teachers, yet OVER 70% have not received training in preventing, recognizing or responding to child sexual abuse.

The National Network to End Child Abuse (NNECA) was established in 2012 when our founder, Suhail Hanif was frustrated with the lack of change in the areas of child sexual abuse and exploitation. Suhail believes that “one child is one child too many” and until we protect every last child we will continue to exist. We’re facing nothing short of a child sexual abuse epidemic. Suhail believes schools must adopt a ‘whole-school’ approach to child sexual abuse, meaning every teacher, every staff member, every child and every parent are empowered and equipped with the relevant age-appropriate prevention training to identify the signs of abuse, and possess the knowledge for next steps.

Experts agree there could be as many as 11 million victims of sexual abuse in the UK constituting a “national epidemic,” due to intra-familial abuse the true scale is unknown, as most incidents remain hidden and go unreported.

We initially set out to learn from solutions that were producing measurable results. So, an ambitious insight research study was put in place. The insight reviewed government approaches, abuse prevention charities, academic studies and research as far afield as Australia, United States, and Canada through to Singapore, India, and then back home in the UK and Europe.

Most importantly, we wanted to base our work on first hand evidence from victims and their families rather than rely on theoretical data. In the light of this, a three-year, global case study of over 44,000 victims and families was carried out, we believe to be the largest in history. We integrated this deep insight and knowledge to make our foundations even stronger. We learnt the most effective prevention strategies revolved around early-stage education and awareness. Using this approach, we truly believe that 90% of child sexual abuse and exploitation is preventable through education and awareness.

Our Mission
Educate adopt a ‘whole school’ approach where all teachers, children and parents have the tools and the know how to recognise the tell-tale signs that child abuse is occurring.

Empower all teachers and trusted adults in the fight against child sex abuse by training them about how to respond to the signs of abuse, and report their concerns.

Protect over 5 million children from abuse, making the UK the safest place in the world to raise our children.