Two children's charities release reports saying no evidence of wrongdoing in Jimmy Savile investigation
Two children’s charities say there is no evidence TV star Jimmy Savile had unsupervised access to children in their care.
Barnardo's and Action for Children released reports to coincide with the publication of an independent investigation into “matters relating to Jimmy Savile at schools and children’s homes” by the Department for Education(DoE) in England.
Allegations centred on Duncroft approved school in Surrey, run by Barnardo’s in the 1970s and 80s and Penhurst School which was operated by Action for Children.
No evidence was found to support the claim that Jimmy Savile was given unsupervised access - Javed Khan
Barnardo's chief executive Javed Khan said: "Whilst the investigation found that Savile was one of a number of celebrities who hosted or was present at events attended by Barnardo’s children over the years, no evidence was found to support the claim that Jimmy Savile was given unsupervised access to children at a Barnardo’s run children’s home in Redbridge."
Khan added: "Barnardo's takes any allegation of historical abuse from adults who were once children in our care extremely seriously."
Action for Children also said it found no evidence of wrongdoing.
“In line with the Department for Education’s call for reports, Action for Children conducted an investigation which found that Jimmy Savile visited Penhurst School on one occasion in the 1970s, to open a fete.
“There is no evidence that he frequently visited the school, that he had contact with individual children or that anything untoward happened on the single occasion he is known to have visited," the charity said.
Action for Children also said it conducted "copious records search" and "contacted over 100 former staff members and students" for its internal investigation, finally determining that "there was evidence of good practice at the school in terms of keeping children safe".
Head of safeguarding at the charity, Deanna Neilson, said: “Action for Children continues to develop practice every day, both through innovation and drawing on lessons learned, to protect children. We must never be complacent – children’s lives depend on it.”
