General Chat

Over many many years governments of all persuasions have been aware of our antiquated laws relating to the protection of vulnerable children and in my opinion it is high time that government got their fingers out and stop talking about it and take action to stop the abuse and neglect of children.

The Prime Minister David Cameron did not miss a single opportunity at his party's recent conference to tell everyone how compassionate and caring his government is, that being the case, he should, without any further dilly-dallying, bring in legislation to ensure that social workers and the police have all the powers they need to enable them to act swiftly to protect vulnerable children from neglect and abuse. They should also, in regards to the funding that they give to local authorities for social care, ring fence an adequate amount for the protection of vulnerable children so that the money does not get siphoned off for some other purpose.

As can be seen from the article below in the telegraph on 07 Feb 2013 the government is fully aware that current legislation is inadequate.

Extract from the article in the Telegraph:-

Baroness Butler-Sloss, the former President of the Family Division of the High Court, is leading a drive to overhaul the current laws, which date back to Victorian times, completely replacing the notion of neglect with a new crime of “child maltreatment”.

For the first time, inflicting emotional and psychological harm on children would be treated as seriously as causing physical injuries or abandoning them.

It follows a string of cases in which the authorities have failed to step in early enough despite warning signs of neglect and abuse, including the Baby P case and the Edlington torture scandal.

Baroness Butler-Sloss, now a cross-bench peer, has helped draft an amendment to the Government’s Crime and Courts Bill, which is currently being considered by a committee of MP's, to overhaul the neglect laws, with the support of the charity Acton for Children.

The current law on “willful neglect” is governed by the Children and Young Persons Act 1933.