Liz Davies, founder and former co-ordinator of the Islington Survivors Network, has been made an OBE for services to child protection.
She played a key role in exposing the systematic abuse of children in Islington’s care system during the 1980s and 1990s.
She said: “I am pleased to accept this honour which I hope will provide recognition of my current work with survivors of the Islington child abuse scandal and assist the voices of survivors to be heard.
“Three of my respected colleagues put me forward for the award to assist me in continuing to challenge complex child abuse networks.
“I hope that the police and social services may now listen and begin to take the accounts of survivors seriously.”
Ms Davies raised the alarm in the 1990s as a senior social worker in Islington, uncovering an organised network of child sexual exploitation operating between 1986 and 1992.
Despite resistance from senior management, she and her colleagues submitted 15 formal reports detailing their concerns.
She said these were dismissed and the children’s stories ignored.
Ms Davies said: “Survivor’s childhood file records showed me that, as children, survivors tried to tell the adults who were paid to protect them, but they were ignored and labelled as the problem.
“They had no choice but to run away, often taking huge risks and many did not survive.”
Media coverage later prompted 14 inquiries into the abuse.
The final inquiry in 1995 found no evidence of organised abuse networks, despite Ms Davies identifying more than 60 victims.
In 1992, she left Islington Council after being instructed to place a seven-year-old child into a foster home she believed was unsafe.
She reported her concerns to Scotland Yard, which led to an exposé in the London Evening Standard and national media attention.
Ms Davies said she has spent 35 years supporting survivors and seeking justice.
She has since trained police and other professionals in child protection investigation, written several books on the subject and collected survivor testimony to build a more complete picture of the abuse that took place.
Evidence she compiled suggests that 41 children’s homes in Islington were affected, far more than the 12 originally believed.
She said: “My worst suspicions were validated, but I soon realised that there was so much more for me to learn.”
Ms Davies went on to work for 11 years as a child protection manager and trainer with Harrow Social Services before teaching social work at London Metropolitan University.
She is now an emeritus professor at the university.
In 2014, she co-founded the Islington Survivors Network, which now supports more than 800 survivors.
She has also criticised changes to government policy made in 2013 that no longer define organised abuse of children or require multi-agency investigation.
Ms Davies said she hopes the OBE will help ensure that survivor voices are finally taken seriously.
She said: “If this award helps me be heard then I will have accepted it for very good reason because it is only when the perpetrators of crimes against children are brought to justice that children are effectively protected.
“I have collated the names of 80 known and alleged abusers, mainly residential workers and visitors, who were allowed access into the homes.”
