“I welcome it… but it’s long overdue,” he told the Big Issue. “We’ve been here so many times with governments past and present, and it’s taken a national crisis for them to act. Too much damage has already been done.”
For Wild, who grew up in a children’s home targeted by predators, the new authority confronts only one part of a much wider, deeply rooted problem.
“Grooming gangs are national. They are in every community. Vulnerable children in the care system have been the number one target for years – not just in Yorkshire, not just in Lancashire, everywhere. This is a national problem.”
Care instability creates opportunity for predators
The government’s announcement focuses heavily on accountability and data, but campaigners argue that abuse thrives within the cracks of a fractured care system.
Wild has spent 15 years working on the front line.
“Children in care are targeted first and foremost because the care system is fragmented. We’ve known this for years. When kids are moved again and again, away from support systems and trusted adults, predators know exactly how to exploit that.”
The Casey Audit reached similar conclusions: children repeatedly moved miles away from home lose stability, disappear from view, and become easier to manipulate.
Wild says the system makes young people vulnerable by design.
“Local authorities don’t even know who owns many children’s homes now because of privatisation and private equity. We don’t know who is running the places we’re putting children in. That puts kids in danger.”
A steep decline in identifying child sexual abuse
Ian Dean, director of the Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse, said the Child Protection Authority could play a vital role, but the scale of the challenge is far starker than the government acknowledges.
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“Thirty years ago, 25% of children on child protection plans were there for sexual abuse. That has fallen to just 3.5%. The decline is startling.”
Dean welcomed new data published today, describing it as “a first step” towards understanding why abuse is so routinely missed. He warned the government must not wait for new structures before acting.
“There is no need to wait for further research. Evidence-based training is available now. Practitioners need ongoing support and professional development immediately.”
Survivors still waiting for justice
The CPA sits alongside a new Independent Inquiry into grooming gangs, chaired by Baroness Anne Longfield and backed by £65 million. Ministers say it will expose wrongdoing by police, councils and social workers.
Wild, who has served on survivor advisory panels, is cautious.
“Do we need a national inquiry? Maybe. But how long will it take? And while we wait, more children will suffer. I fear this will drag on, just like all the others.”
He recalled working on online safety reforms in the years before the pandemic, when Sajid Javid and others were pushing for stronger protections against grooming and exploitation. Survivors, practitioners and campaigners repeatedly set out the risks to children in care, he said, yet the system failed to act at the speed the evidence demanded.
“We had survivors from all over the country telling government exactly what needed to happen. The evidence was there years ago. We could have acted quickly, but we didn’t.”
Some survivors he has known have since taken their own lives.
“They had no support and no justice. That’s why I’m passionate about ending this. I’ve watched too many of my friends die.”
A system in crisis
Wild says deep political divides are slowing the response.
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“We shouldn’t be using this for political point scoring. It’s dangerous. Every day that passes, more children are being targeted. On the front line, kids are living in danger right now.”
He supports proposals to strengthen corporate parenting responsibilities and protections for care-experienced people – but warns they must be far stronger.
“We need unbiased national oversight, we need stronger laws, and we need cross-party support. Otherwise nothing will change.”
The government insists the Child Protection Authority will deliver the “expert, decisive and focused” national leadership that England’s fragmented safeguarding system has lacked. A 12-week consultation will determine how far its powers reach, including whether it can meaningfully hold local authorities, police forces and safeguarding partners to account.
But campaigners say the failures that allowed grooming and exploitation to flourish run far deeper than governance structures. Children in care are routinely moved hundreds of miles from their communities, placing them directly in harm’s way.
Residential care is increasingly dominated by private equity, with little transparency over who owns or runs the homes where vulnerable children are placed. Agencies still fail to share information at critical moments. Identification of child sexual abuse has plummeted to historic lows. And survivors continue to spend decades waiting for justice that often never comes.
For Chris Wild, these systemic failures cannot be sidestepped.
“Unless we have the right laws, and unless government responds quickly with action, this will continue,” he said. “I’m glad it’s being prioritised now – but I don’t know if this is enough.”
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And while inquiries, consultations and new bodies take shape, the reality for children living in unsafe situations remains unchanged.
“Every delay means more casualties. More victims of grooming gangs,” Wild warned. “That’s the truth.”
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