Peter Watt2013-06-19T15:16:11-04:00Peter Watthttp://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/author/index.php?author=peter-wattCopyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc.HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Peter WattGood old fashioned elbow grease.Horrific Child Abuse Stories Could Actually Be a Cause for Optimismtag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.33823932013-06-04T19:00:00-04:002013-06-04T12:40:25-04:00Peter Watthttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-watt/
Every day it feels like there is another story of children who have suffered abuse, of adults who were abused as children or of another celebrity being accused, charged or convicted. I've almost lost track of the number of official inquiries that are currently underway.
Even a cursory skimming of the news shows that across the country there are reports of trials involving some truly dreadful crimes against children. Just last week we had the conviction of Mark Bridger following the harrowing case of the murder of April Jones. Stuart Hall recently pleaded guilty to 14 attacks on girls as young as 9. The police confirmed they are investigating claims of abuse against 39 music teachers at two Manchester music schools. Long running grooming gang trials in both Oxford and Telford concluded last month. A report looking at abuse in children's homes in North Wales said they had 140 allegations and a possible 84 alleged perpetrators and all of this as the horrors of Savile are still corrupting the national conscious and the work of the Yewtree investigation continues.
So what on earth is going on? Well, I believe some of this is simply coincidence but some gives me reason to be optimistic. Yes, I really did say optimistic.
Rather than view all the reports of these horrific cases as a sign that things are getting worse, we should actually be pleased that they are being exposed, that they are being discussed and that offenders are being taken to court. For instance, the vigorous way in which child sexual exploitation, particularly by gangs, is now being pursued is partly down to a new focus on tackling child sexual exploitation in every part of the justice system following the shocking failure to tackle it in Rochdale. It still has a long, long way to go but the days of social workers and police officers describing 14 year-olds hanging about the streets as 'prostitutes' are thankfully pretty much gone.
People who came forward with accusations against Stuart Hall did so because they had heard the reports about Jimmy Savile. This too is true for many of the other high profile arrests that have occurred recently. And it's not just those relating to celebrities. The NSPCC helpline, seven months after the Savile story broke, is still receiving around a third more calls than usual. And for a while we were receiving 200% more calls on sexual abuse than usual.
Behind every number will be a frightened and confused child who will now be taken from harm and given the chance to enjoy the rest of their childhood because somebody somewhere thought 'something's not quite right.' But rather than go on their way, or wait to be certain, they picked up the phone. One woman said "I've been concerned for some time about a child and then I saw the Jimmy Savile coverage and people saying that people didn't do anything and decided I wasn't going to be one of those people." This is pretty typical of the calls we've been getting.
There is a new found confidence in taking action. In not hesitating.
Keir Starmer the Director of Public Prosecution recently announced changes to how victims of sexual abuse will be dealt with to further improve the chances of a conviction. And I can say from first-hand experience of working closely with the police on several current major investigations that their resolve to follow up every possible line of inquiry is incredibly reassuring.
And just last week we reported that in many ways children and young people are in fact safer than ever before. Our report 'How safe are our children?' took an in depth look across child protection and found that killings of children are significantly down over the last few decades. This is really good news and something I think most would not have expected. And on top of that we have some of the most stringent standards for child protection services anywhere in the world. And of course the opportunities young people now have are improving all the time. I genuinely believe this is a good country to grow up in.
Are we on the cusp of a fundamental change in how we view child abuse, how we report it and how we investigate it? I hope so; and if we are, then the current deluge of stories will have played their part in achieving this change. And in the long run, children will be safer as a result.]]>Silence and Anonymity Do Not Bring Abusers to Justicetag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.32071052013-05-03T19:00:00-04:002013-05-03T12:05:51-04:00Peter Watthttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-watt/admitting his guilt.
I can only imagine how that must feel - to see someone who had denied and lied his way out of the awful things he'd done to you finally saying yes, I did that, you weren't making it up.
So why did I still feel angry even when I was glad that justice had been done?
Well, frankly I am appalled because there are 13 people whose lives will have been damaged by the actions of this man. And I feel deeply sad for the victims who had carried this terrible burden inside them for so many years.
If you think about what Hall did - he abused these children at the time, and then he chose to effectively abuse them again when he was first accused. He denied everything and said the claims were 'callous and cruel'.
Basically he was saying his victims were lying and he was the one who was suffering. Right up to the last moment he was using the same techniques of manipulation that all paedophiles use to keep their victims quiet.
And yet no sooner had Hall admitted what he'd done then some voices were calling for anonymity for people accused of sexual crimes. Now at first glance you might think, yes, why should someone's reputation be smeared before they have been proven guilty?
But let's take a step back and once again think about this from the victim's point of view.
The abuser will use their position of authority, they get the victim into a position of trust and then they abuse that trust. They twist the situation so that the person who has been abused feels as though they are partly responsible.
The victim may be made to feel that they did something to encourage the abuse, that they are a bad person, that if they speak out they will get them and the abuser into trouble, and crucially, that no one will believe them anyway.
For the victim of sexual abuse it is almost impossible to speak out against this apparently all-powerful person. And it's likely as well that they will be terrified of everyone knowing what happened and having to relive their ordeal in court.
Thankfully on this occasion, Hall's admission of guilt means his victims won't have to go through the trauma of a trial. But I think a large part of why he pleaded guilty was that the publicity surrounding the accusations gave so many victims the strength to speak out, even after 20 years.
When a suspect is named in the public interest - for example when there is a child protection issue - it gives more victims an opportunity to come forward, which helps police build a stronger criminal case. And contrary to popular belief, false allegations of sexual abuse are very rare.
The first victim of Stuart Hall came forward because of the Savile investigation. And looking back to that investigation, it revealed there were hundreds of people he had abused over half a century.
Many may have felt theirs was an isolated case but could have been encouraged to speak out earlier if they had known the full extent of his crimes. If a suspect's name is not known the case against them may collapse through lack of witnesses, so potentially putting children at risk of harm.
People have to be able to make an allegation against their abuser no matter how much time has passed - a week, a month, a year, 20 years; it doesn't matter. You can speak out, you will be taken seriously and there is a good chance that justice will be served.
I hope these guilty pleas will encourage more victims of sexual abuse to come forward so they can finally get the justice they deserve.]]>Let's Talk About Sex(ting)tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.15387492012-05-23T19:00:00-04:002012-07-23T05:12:05-04:00Peter Watthttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-watt/piece of research earlier this month on 'sexting'. I say worrying because it gave an insight into the sorts of pressures that young people are under to take part in sexting. And that got me thinking about just how seriously this issue is being taken. Because the harsh reality is that boys and girls are both at huge risk.
It is worth reflecting on exactly what we are talking about here. Sexting is defined as the:
"exchange of sexual messages or images" and "creating, sharing and forwarding sexually suggestive nude or nearly nude images" through mobile phones and the Internet.
Quantitative research on sexting varies but the statistics suggest that between 15 and 40% of young people are involved in sexting, depending on their age and the way sexting is measured.
The NSPCC study was conducted by researchers from the Institute of Education, King's College London, London School of Economics and the Open University. It consisted of a small scale qualitative study of young people in two London schools aimed at to improving the understanding of sexting and the use of mobile technology by young people.
The key findings were that the danger from sexting comes from peers not strangers. That it is often coercive and that girls are the most adversely affected. That technology amplifies the problem by further facilitating the objectification of girls by boys. And that the sexual pressures that many young people feel under participate in sexting start from a relatively young age, for instance the report quotes a female in year 8 (so aged about 12) who said:
'If they want it [a blow job] they will ask [by text] every single day until you say yes.'
Now young people being interested in sex is hardly something new. And nor is the taking of risks by young people as they explore their sexuality. When I was at school there was often someone who seemed to have access to a porn-mag and that gave them some sort of status within the group. Or there was the teacher that everyone fancied and said or wrote things about that you always hoped they would never see.
I even remember rumours of 'you-show-me-yours' going on from time to time. But the advent of modern technology has amplified the problem so that young people are now exposed to a very different and potentially more serious set of risks. All too often neither they nor their parents and adults fully appreciate this. And you can understand why.
I think that I am a pretty technology savvy parent but I am also pretty sure that my children are more so. For them mobile technology has always been a part of their lives, for me it arrived late. For them, having a pocket device that sends instance messages including photos and videos is as normal as riding a bike was to me at their age.
And that familiarity means that respect for the potential harm is often absent. Taking photos and sharing them is massively popular. Where people used to clap and cheer at events they now take photos and videos with their smartphones. And critically the images are instantly shared. What is often not appreciated is that this sharing cannot be controlled; that once you press send or upload then the image is no longer yours but has effectively become public. The private picture sent to your boyfriend can be instantly shared around school and beyond so that what seemed fun quickly becomes devastating.
Take the case of the teenager recently jailed for 10 months for bullying a young girl into sending a video of herself naked. She was left devastated and he ended up in a young offenders institution. And yet, as the NSPCC report shows, many other boys in schools are likely to feel under pressure to harvest such images of their peers. As one male participant aged 14 said:
If they had a picture of a girl naked and you told them, 'That's wrong,' they will think straight away you are gay.
And they would do so without understanding the potential illegality of their acts and the potentially devastating impact on the girl and indeed on themselves. For them it would be just doing what everyone seems to be doing. It's just a text or an upload after all. How serious can that really be? And I suspect that many adults and parents whilst horrified at the thought do not in reality see this behaviour as being nearly as serious or prevalent as it in reality often is.
Presumably that is until they find the indecent images on their own child's phone. Here at the NSPCC until very recently we never took calls from people worried about sexting. Now we take several a month; often where there is an incident at school involving the sharing of images either by text or social media. The numbers are only likely to keep increasing.
But there is in effect a culture of silence that means that young people with their mobile phones are putting themselves and each other at risk. Boys under pressure to see girls as objects of sexual gratification. Girls under pressure to conform to a caricatured sense of sexual attractiveness. And parents and adults worried but unsure of the extent of the danger and embarrassed to talk about it.
But, as the NSPCC report concludes, the rapid advancement of technology means that the nature of the problem also keeps changing just as rapidly. Clearly more work is needed to help parents and professionals to better understand the nature and extent of the problem. And, critically, so that they can better help young people protect themselves.
If you are worried that a young person is involved in sexting then let the NSPCC know by calling 0808 800 5000 or by texting text 88858, or visit nspcc.org.uk/helpline. If you are a young person worried about sexting then contact Childline on 0800 1111 or visit www.childline.org.uk]]>Why Does So Much Abuse of Children Go Unreported?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.13746402012-03-25T19:00:00-04:002012-05-25T05:12:02-04:00Peter Watthttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-watt/
Firstly, despite the recent economic difficulties, the last century has seen huge rises in wealth and opportunity for children. More young people stay in education or training post 16 than ever before. When I was at school foreign holidays were rare but now they are the norm, most children have access to a family car, a TV, computer and a library. Children are vaccinated against disease, get free dental care, subsidised travel on public transport and their families receive money from the state to help with the costs of parenting. So as overall wealth has increased there has been a conscious decision by successive governments to invest in children. The result has been that the health, material comfort and wellbeing of children have improved.
And secondly, as a society we have also invested in supporting a safe and nurturing environment for all children. Laws have been passed that both state that children are entitled to be safe, and define what, who and how this will be ensured. Structures have been developed around schools, GPs and social services that support families and intervene to protect children when there is a problem. The message has been clear - safe and nurtured children are all of our priority. And successive Governments have consciously chosen to legislate to try and achieve just that.
All good so far. As a society, at face value we do take the welfare of our children seriously. But scratch beneath the surface and it is not so clear. In 2011, almost 45,000 people across the UK contacted the NSPCC with concerns about a child - a 29% increase on the previous year. But 56% of people whose call to the NSPCC was so serious it needed further action said they had been concerned about the child for at least a month. Over a quarter had waited at least six months to report their concerns.
To address this reluctance to take action we have launched a campaign today - 'Don't Wait Until You're Certain' - to encourage people to report concerns about child abuse sooner.
The reality is that all too often we send out very mixed messages about our level of seriousness. Take the recent horrific cases of Roshane Channer and Ruben Monteiro. Both 21, they raped an 11-year-old girl in Bedfordshire. And for good measure they videoed the attack. Their justification? They thought that the victim was 14. And for this vile attack they received a 40 month prison sentence. Forty months; what sort of signal does that send about how seriously we take the welfare of our children? The Attorney General, following calls from the NSPCC and others, has now referred these sentences to the Court of Appeal - but the damage has been done. And this is far from being an isolated case.
And then there is the fact that in many ways, despite the hard work and dedication of those working in child protection, much of what we currently do as a society barely scratches the surface. Just look at the numbers. As of March 2010, 46,705 children were subject to child protection plans or on child protection registers because they are thought to be at risk of harm.
And yet the NSPCC research study Child Cruelty in the UK 2011 found that 18.6% of 11 to 17-years-olds had been severely maltreated during childhood. In other words, the number of children being protected by the state is a tiny proportion of those who actually need protecting. Silently and unheard thousands of children are being abused and hurt and no one has noticed. Or if they have then they haven't let anyone know that they are worried.
The NSPCC Helpline service allows any adult who is worried about a child to contact the NSPCC anonymously with their concerns. Some contacts lead to advice and support being given or signposting to other local services. But after careful assessment, just under half of all contacts are considered so serious (21,000 in total) that a referral to the local social services or the police is made.
Over the past five years contacts to the NSPCC about abuse (neglect, physical abuse, emotional abuse and sexual abuse) have doubled overall. But people are still delaying letting others know about their concerns. And they delay because they are worried about whether they are right and about whether they will be taken seriously.
Take the case of Jessie. A distressed neighbour, who wished to remain anonymous, contacted the NSPCC to discuss issues and concerns she had about Jessie, aged nine. They had frequently heard Jessie's mother shouting awful things at her, such as, "you have spoilt my life" and "you are a useless, horrible girl".
They had been concerned for some time but had never felt able to do anything. But what finally made them put aside any doubt was when Jessie's mum locked Jessie out of the house until 10:30pm in the middle of winter for misbehaving. The caller went on to say she had noticed bruises on Jessie's face, arms and legs that she thought had been caused when her mother had hit her. The NSPCC contacted the local social services who quickly assessed the situation and took Jessie into the care of foster carers.
But Jessie had been made to wait for help. And for tens-of-thousands of children the wait will be longer with the abuse only ending when they grow up and leave home. So if you are a child today looking around you how will you feel in answer to the question 'is the welfare of children taken seriously?' Well, with our criminal justice system sending mixed messages and more children being abused and hurt than the systems designed to protect them can cope with, you would have every right to feel that the seriousness with which children's welfare is taken can be patchy.
But there are no easy answers here. Fundamentally the system of child protection needs to be reviewed so that it reflects the reality that the statutory agencies alone cannot possibly hope to identify and tackle the extent of harm actually happening to children. And each and every one of us has to decide that if we are worried about a child that we will not wait until we are certain. Because taking the safety of our children seriously should not be taken at face value.
If you are worried about a child, don't wait until you're certain. Call 0808 800 5000, text 88858 or visit www.nspcc.org.uk
Watch the new NSPCC campaign video here. ]]>Gove Is Right to Back Care for Vulnerable Childrentag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.13035562012-02-27T19:00:00-05:002012-04-28T05:12:01-04:00Peter Watthttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-watt/
It is why passions are running high on the current NHS and Social Care Bill which certainly has its vociferous opponents and supporters alike. And similarly, Michael Gove's Free Schools programme has passionate backers and detractors with both sides claiming that the other will damage education. But that is politics for you and no doubt Michael Gove will be enjoying the cut-and-thrust of the heated debate.
But Michael Gove is not just responsible for schools. He is also responsible for children's services and last week he gave a speech on the future of adoption. What he said might not have generated quite as much excitement (or anger) as free schools. And it certainly didn't attract as many column inches, but in terms of the impact on aspiration and fairness it was at least as important.
The simple fact is that at on any given day there are about 89,000 children who are formally being looked after by their local authority because their parents are unable to. Of these, about 75,000 children are being looked after outside of their home. For some, this will be because their parents are temporarily unable to provide a safe and nurturing environment, perhaps because of illness. But for others there are more profound and long-standing problems. Parents who hurt their children or who fail to protect them from a partner. Parents who fail to help their children to thrive, show them little love, or humiliate them. And parents who simply do not seem to understand what their children need in order to grow and develop.
Over the years there has been a debate about when the local authority should intervene. There has been a strong sense that parents should be given every chance to succeed and thereby keep the birth family together. But there is a flip-side to this as the longer a child stays in a damaging environment the greater the long term harm is likely to be, to their emotional health, to their educational attainment and to their life-chances. It really is a tough choice. A choice that has to be made by dedicated social workers day-in and day-out.
But in his speech, Michael Gove said something very important. He challenged head on the belief that taking children from damaging home situations into care was itself damaging:
Children and young people do not encounter disadvantage because they have been in care. They are in care because they have had to be rescued from disadvantage.
And he added:
Better to take children into care than allow them to be abused. So let me underline this. We in government will back social workers who take children into care.
We do not regard more children being taken into care as a problem with social work which the profession must address. It is a problem with parenting, which our whole society must address.
As a foster carer myself I strongly welcome this clear and unambiguous statement. It is great to hear him say that care is a positive outcome for some children. And that the undoubted disadvantages that many children in care face are not the result of being in care but rather the result of the very experiences that brought them into care in the first place. This is certainly not a charter for the unwarranted 'snatching' of children from their parents. Rather it is a powerful re-assertion that the rights of children to be safe, loved and nurtured override the rights of their parents.
Over the years, my wife and I have cared for significant numbers of children where we strongly felt that the rights of parents had come first, when decisions over whether to take children into care were being made. Children were left with birth parents for far too long as support packages were tried, failed and tried again. Excuses were made, and often lawyers for the parents successfully argued for more time to get things right.
The result was prolonged suffering and damage to the children. Children who often suffered at school as they were either very quiet or 'out of control', or smelled, or looked dirty and unkempt. Children who found forming relationships difficult and often put themselves at great risk. So it is good to hear that the government is committed to working to tip the balance in decision-making in favour of the children.
But Michael Gove said something else important. He talked about the importance of achieving permanence for children in care. For most children in care, if they can't go home then what they want more than anything is a permanent home. They don't want to get moved from family to family but want to know that this is my home where I will be staying. It is incredibly unsettling with many children worrying that if they 'step out of line' then they will be asked to move. So they don't feel that they have unconditional love but conditional love. What a horrible situation to be in.
Permanence can take many forms, from a permanent foster placement, to special guardianships and, of course, adoption. Michael Gove was right to highlight the need to speed up decision making so that decisions on permanence can be taken more quickly. At the moment decisions can take years. In fact it took us 18 months to adopt our daughter, who we were already fostering, and that was using a fast-track process!
And he is right to say that the assessment process for prospective adopters is very long, feels inefficient and is incredibly intrusive with assessment forms regularly running to over 100 pages. Performance is variable across the country with some areas having a relatively quick and fluid process, whilst in other areas it seems that getting adopted is all but impossible.
So it is great news that Michael Gove is establishing an Action Plan on Adoption that will look at shortening the process and establish benchmarks for success. But he must also be careful that in trying to rightly speed up the process that he doesn't allow compromises to be made. More bureaucracy is certainly no substitute for proper assessment, but simply pushing to reduce bureaucracy should not risk the quality of the assessments themselves.
It might not have excited the leader writers of the national media as it doesn't challenge the educational establishment and upset some teachers. But that does not make Michael Gove's speech on fostering and adoption any less important. Reform and the cutting of bureaucracy have been promised before of course. But on face value, if you are a child who is suffering in damaging home environments, or a child in care desperate for permanence, then its implications are potentially both profound and welcome. And with the numbers of children in care rising, and the number of children being adopted falling, it cannot come a moment too soon.
For advice on any child protection issue contact the NSPCC on 0808 800 5000.]]>We Need to Work Together to Stop Child Abusetag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.12264842012-01-24T06:05:25-05:002012-03-25T05:12:01-04:00Peter Watthttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-watt/
I was reminded of this once again over Christmas. The NSPCC provides a service that allows anyone worried about a child to contact us anonymously and let us know their concerns. We can then take action to protect that child. So during the Christmas break, when we were all watching terrible TV, eating too much and opening presents, over 1000 people contacted the NSPCC worried about a child. Of these, nearly half - following careful assessment - were considered so serious that details of the concerns were passed to the local social services child protection teams and often to the police as well. On Christmas day itself NSPCC helpline counsellors were contacted about children suffering physical abuse, about children being put at harm by parents taking drugs, and about children where neighbours were worried about excessive and constant shouting at children.
Sadly, although tragic, none of this is surprising to the incredible group of NSPCC staff who deal with these issues day-in-and-day-out. Last year they dealt with nearly 40,000 contacts from those worried about a child with over 20,000 passed to local agencies for further action. Many of these concerns had not been reported to social services already.
Cases like the person who called to tell us about their neighbour's young children. For months they could hear shouting coming from next door. Shouting at the children, shouting at each other, thuds and children crying constantly. Not just loud but angry, aggressive shouting. The children were rarely seen and when they were, they were always subdued and always trying to hide new bruises. And the neighbour was worried, and it was getting worse, lasting longer. The crying seemed somehow shriller with each day that passed. They didn't know what to do and so they called the NSPCC.
Or the person who called about a child that they knew whose mum was always humiliating them. The child never seemed to be able to do anything right, was always in trouble, always being told that they were "stupid" and on one occasion "ugly." Either that or they were ignored. The child was withdrawn and didn't like playing with other children and just seemed unhappy and sad. The person who called was worried, didn't know what to do, and so they called the NSPCC.
And thank goodness that people do call, because these sorts of cases are not as rare as we would like to think. In 2011, the NSPCC published a report into the prevalence of child abuse in the UK. The report was a comprehensive attempt to answer the question - how often does abuse actually occur? The answer is that there is a substantial number of children and young people who are severely maltreated and experience abuse at home, in school and in the community, from adults and from peers.
To give one example, our research found that nearly one in five secondary school children in the UK had been severely abused or neglected in childhood: 18.6% of 11-17 year olds we questioned had been sexually attacked by an adult, sexually abused, or neglected at home. And here is the nub of the problem. There are 46,000 or so children in the UK on a child protection plan or child protection register and who are therefore known by social services to be at risk. A further 83,000 children in the UK, (0.5% of all children), are children in care. And yet the NSPCC's research suggests that 6% of 11-17 year olds actually suffered maltreatment by a parent or guardian in the last year.
So the harsh truth is, despite the hard work and dedication of those working within it, the child protection system is failing many children who desperately need help.
So why is this? What is going on? Well perhaps understandably people worry about reporting abuse. They might be concerned that they are mistaken. That they'll look ridiculous. Will reporting cause more harm than good? Will they themselves end up being dragged into the situation by reporting it? And anyway, once it's reported things might spiral out of control.
These are all reasonable concerns. But the impact of this is the continuing suffering of children who are being abused. And in case the word 'abuse' somehow sanitises the reality, we are talking about children regularly and repeatedly being hurt, kicked, punched, poisoned, humiliated, sexually abused, denied love, care, stimulation, medical treatment and food. The NSPCC, social services, and the police have highly trained and experienced people who can help. If in doubt, make the call, and let us decide what to do.
So we all need to recognise that if social services don't know, then they can't help. If no one tells them, the police, or the NSPCC, that there is a concern then the situation will continue. And we need to be expressing concerns sooner, not just waiting until we are absolutely sure or until the crisis happens. People who contact the NSPCC, for instance, tend to have been worried about the problem for several weeks, sometimes for months. Raising concerns sooner might very well mean that a crisis is prevented by the offer of help and support.
As well as a reluctance to report worries and concerns about children, there is a further threat to those children who are suffering and no one has yet noticed. Research from the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy for the NSPCC, published in November, shows that on average the cuts to children's social care budgets, (England and Wales), are 24%. Some are as high as 40%. This compares to just a 10% reduction in overall local government spending. Public finances are of course under huge pressure. All of the main UK-wide political parties are now committed to reducing the deficit and believe that such action is necessary. No area of public spending is or should be immune.
But the child protection system was already failing a significant number of abused children. So government, central and local, should look very carefully at the impact of these cuts. Smart cuts should not just lop bits off budgets. Instead, they should involve a root and branch review of how we try to protect children better. Now is not the time for timidity. More spent on early intervention will lead to less demand later - and less cost. More support to struggling families will mean fewer families in crisis - and less cost. And making it even easier for people to report their concerns will mean less children being left to suffer alone.
Because we're all against child abuse, aren't we? So we have to hope that more people will notice what's going on around us, that governments will ensure the impact of these cuts doesn't mean even more children will suffer in silence, and that we can reach and support children who are stuck in a living hell, to help build a life free from fear and danger. If you are worried about that child then let the NSPCC know by calling 0808 800 5000 or by texting text 88858, or visit nspcc.org.uk/helpline.]]>