Recent disclosures about abuse in boarding schools highlight an issue that remains highly relevant to survivors of childhood abuse: who can you sue?

Princess Diana’s brother, Earl Charles Spencer, spoke publicly about his experiences at Maidwell Hall, the Northamptonshire boarding school he attended as a child. He described sexual and physical abuse, including allegations concerning an assistant matron and other staff members.

Following publication of his memoir, A Very Private School , Northamptonshire Police said it was proactively investigating the allegations and invited anyone who had suffered abuse at the establishment, or elsewhere in the county, to come forward.

This case illustrates the nature of the allegations that can arise in a boarding-school environment. In his memoir, A Very Private School , Spencer described being subjected to sexual abuse by an assistant matron when he was aged 11, alongside physical abuse and harsh corporal punishment by other members of staff at Maidwell Hall in Northamptonshire. He described the lasting psychological impact of his experiences and, in writing the memoir, also spoke to former pupils who described their own experiences at the school.

Following the publication of these accounts, Northamptonshire Police announced in June 2024 that it was investigating a number of allegations of sexual abuse said to have occurred at the school during the 1970s and appealed for others who may have experienced abuse to come forward. Maidwell Hall said it was sorry for the experiences described by Spencer and others.

Often abuse survivors in educational settings such as boarding schools feel unable to come forward due to the institutionalised nature of surroundings, for fear of not being believed or the fact that prior to advances in technology children were away from home for prolonged periods with no way of contacting their loved ones.

For survivors of abuse at schools, boarding schools and other educational establishments, the story is a reminder that abuse which happened many years ago can still give rise to important legal questions.

Who may be legally responsible?

A claim does not necessarily depend upon establishing that the individual perpetrator have sufficient means/assets to compensate a survivor.

Depending upon the circumstances, there may be a claim against the organisation responsible for the school or institution.

State schools run by local authorities will have liability for teachers.

One important issue is vicarious liability. The law in England and Wales says that an organisation can, under particular circumstances, be liable for abuse committed by an individual where the relationship between the perpetrator and the organisation  is that of an employee or “akin to an employee” and that there is a close connection between that relationship and the abuse satisfy the applicable tests.

This legal principle can be particularly relevant to abuse that has taken place in educational settings, where children may be placed in the care and authority of teachers, housemasters, matrons, residential staff, coaches or other adults working within the school/other institution.

There may also be questions concerning the school's own duty of care, including whether appropriate safeguarding, supervision, recruitment or monitoring arrangements were in place, and depending on the circumstances a claim in negligence may also be relevant.

The precise basis of liability will, however, depend upon the facts of each individual case.

What if the abuse happened decades ago?

Many survivors understandably assume that it is simply "too late" to bring a claim. That is not necessarily the case.

For many years, limitation has been a significant issue in historic child sexual abuse claims. That position has now changed substantially with a change in the law regarding this having come in this year.

Namely, section 11ZA of the Limitation Act 1980, introduced by the Crime and Policing Act 2026, removes the previous, usual statutory time limits for qualifying personal injury claims arising from child sexual abuse.

The new provision applies where the claimant was under 18 when the relevant abuse occurred and the claim includes damages for personal injury attributable to an act or omission constituting sexual abuse.  The important distinction here, is that this is for sexual abuse only, not physical abuse which the limitation act of three years still applies.

Importantly for survivors of historic abuse, section 11ZA applies retrospectively to causes of action which accrued before the provision came into force, subject to limited statutory exceptions.

This means that survivors who were sexually abused at a boarding school, school or other educational institution many decades ago are no longer necessarily required to overcome the usual three-year limitation period which previously applied to these types of claims under section 11 of the Limitation Act 1980 or rely upon the court's discretion under section 33 to extend time. The burden now rests on the defendant to satisfy the court that a fair hearing is not possible.

Nevertheless, it remains important for potential claimants to seek legal advice at the earliest opportunity, as delay may still have implications for the availability and reliability of evidence and the fairness of the proceedings.

The change in limitation law is particularly significant in historic school and boarding-school abuse cases, where survivors may only feel able to disclose or pursue what happened many years after leaving the school. The passage of time should therefore no longer, in itself, be assumed to prevent a survivor from investigating whether they have a viable civil claim.

It remains important to obtain specialist legal advice because the precise legal basis of a claim, the evidence available and the applicability of section the relevant statutory provisions will depend upon the individual circumstances of each case.

Evidence can sometimes include school records, admissions documentation, correspondence, contemporaneous medical or counselling records, witness evidence and accounts from other former pupils. Where several people describe similar experiences at the same institution, that evidence may also be relevant to the investigation of what the organisation knew, or ought to have known, and the systems it had in place.

If this sounds familiar

The allegations concerning Maidwell Hall involved events from the 1970s, yet they resulted in renewed public discussion and a police investigation more than 40 years later. The story demonstrates why survivors of historical abuse should not necessarily assume that the passage of time prevents them from exploring their legal options.

If you experienced sexual, physical or other serious abuse while attending a boarding school, day school, private school, college, university, training centre/facility, residential educational establishment or another institution responsible for your care, it may be worth obtaining specialist legal advice about whether a civil claim can be brought.

Our specialist team of abuse solicitors can investigate the circumstances, identify the potentially responsible parties, consider the relevant legal hurdles and examine whether there is evidence of institutional or organisational responsibility perhaps instead of or maybe in addition to pursuing a claim for compensation against the individual perpetrator.

For many survivors, taking the first step does not mean immediately commencing proceedings. It can simply mean understanding what happened, what evidence may exist and whether the law provides a route to compensation and accountability.

Seeking advice does not necessarily mean that you have to begin court proceedings which can feel very daunting. In fact, most claims will settle outside of the court doors. However, importantly, the first step in any civil claim can simply be a confidential discussion about what happened and whether there may be a legal route to compensation.

If you have been affected by abuse in an educational setting, contact Switalskis for confidential advice about a potential abuse compensation claim.

Contact Hannah Hodgson at Hannah.hodgson@switalskis.com or Danielle Vincent at Danielle.vincent@switalskis.com for a free, non-obligatory and confidential chat.