Lord Storey: Child neglect ‘can be tackled’ by Government

Neglect is the most common form of child abuse in the UK today.

Action for Children's ground breaking report, ' Child neglect: the scandal that never breaks' shows the extent of neglect through the eyes of children and calls for a national strategy to help these vulnerable children.

The shocking findings show that three quarters (73 per cent) of children in the UK know another child who is showing signs of neglect.

Neglecting a child can take many forms. Physical signs can include a child not being fed or clothed properly, but it can also be emotional neglect with far reaching consequences affecting all aspects of a child’s development.

The report draws together Action for Children’s evidence about the scale of child neglect and what works to help address the problems, gathered over six years. It sets out practical measures that will make a real difference to neglected children's lives.

As a former teacher I know that we must support professionals to identify need. We have already committed to opening up the Pupil Premium into the early years and through this mechanism, we should make sure that schools are able to effectively align resources to help neglected children.

The general public are increasingly aware of child neglect, but too many people don’t know where to go to report their concerns or that there are services in their area available to help.

40 per cent of parents said they want more information on who to go to for help.

We must do more to raise awareness about neglect, alongside Action for Children’s recommendations to ensure that professionals are equipped with the right information to proactively share with parents, whilst the public have somewhere to confidently report their fears.

These issues can be resolved. With a strategic and joined-up approach to intervening as early as possible, we can tackle the problem of child neglect.

My Liberal Democrat colleague Mark Williams MP has led parliamentary calls for the criminal law on neglect to be updated, and I pay tribute to his campaign with Action for Childrenthrough the ‘Child Maltreatment’ Private Members’ Bill.

Together with a new criminal framework that is fit for the 21st century, a Government strategy would for the first time allow us as a country to comprehensively tackle the most common form of child abuse. I look forward to working with colleagues across both houses of Parliament to make the case for government time and attention to address child neglect.