John O'Brien CBE (Part A) IICSA Special Series Part 3 - Breaking the Cycle to Step Forward Podcast

Welcome to #BreakingTheCycle #ToStepForward podcast with Chris and Beverley.
30-60 minutes of authentic conversation around awareness and education of trauma from abuse and the journey of recovery, from a lived experience & professional perspective.
Imagine sitting around a table and having an open, honest and transparent discussion with your trusted friend. Nothing is off limits and the discussion is respectful, calm and insightful.
In this podcast episode our special guest is John O'Brien CBE former Secretary to IICSA - the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. John is now a Senior Associate to Crest Advisory and works alongside Prof Alexis Jay CBE on different projects as well as the VSCP with #ActOnIICSA.
In this podcast Part 3 - John takes us through his timeline and speaks about the following:-
1) His childhood, education & early career
2) John speaks his first experience of the Civil Service heading up the CRB - Criminal Records Bureau (changing it from all the individual forces to a one stop shop where organisations / institutions access the criminal record information for those working with CYP and vulnerable adults in regulated activities) and the challenges his faced changing the system and dealing with the backlog of applications.
3) John speaks about the #Soham victims Holly Wells & Jessica Chapman & the Bischard Inquiry into their murders. John was asked by the Home Office to head up the Gov's response to these recommendations.
4) John explains his overriding aim was to bridge the gap that allowed the murders to happen - which was to get the local forces to share their intelligence.
5) This piece of work lead onto John work in Safeguarding at an operational level - Health / Education.
6) In 2010 under the Coalition Gov there was a review of the vetting and barring system which underpins the CRB. There were 33 million posts in the UK which were potentially subject to the disclosure regime. It had the potential to implode because the system was becoming onerous and was leaving large gaps in employers getting the necessary information in a timely manner and staff were moving on. John lead the Policy team that rationalised the above system to modernise it to a certain extent.
7) John became Director of Safeguarding in the Home Office working at a strategic level. Trying to rationalise the safeguarding landscape to have a better foundation on which to build on to stop SILO working.
8) 2013/14 #Savile case exploded onto the scenes John helped the Met set up #OperationYewtree.
9) Victim & survivors were coming out in their thousands demanding an Inquiry.
10) John explains the inner workings of Gov & how an Inquiry comes to being.
11) The proposed Inquiry at that time was non statutory and this did not suit victims and survivors because you cannot compel witnesses to give evidence i.e. the Inquiry did not have teeth.
12) John touches upon all the different Chairs of the Inquiry.
13) John speaks about Theresa May MP Home Secretary / Prime Minister and her wanting to involve victims and survivors in the Inquiry from the outset.
14) John became the Secretary to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse and set up the Inquiry from scratch; building the infrastructure which would and did take more than 12 months.
15) John speaks about the further challenges that IICSA faced in 2016 just as it was starting to take evidence.
16) The Panel decided to look at sectors as strands so that IICSA could publish reports and recommendations as it carried out its investigations and be able to hold institutions to account before its end.
17) 19 Publications were made and an Interim Report were published in 2018. Everytime a report was published we were able to keep IICSA in the media and in the public consciousness. Focus was kept on the subject matter in hand.
18) Cross cutting themes came to the fore from all the strands that were investigated. John explains why certain institutions were heard from / about and not others.
19) John explains why he did alot of the media throughout the lifetime of the Inquiry and not the Chair / Panel - to prevent the potential of a Judicial Review.
20) John talks about the challenges of Covid and how IICSA had to pivot to Online.
Join us for Part B IICSA Special Edition Part 4 next week!
If you have any questions or comments regarding this podcast please contact us :
[e-mail]
Chris: [e-mail]
Beverley: [e-mail]