17 November 2008
Stopping child abuse before it starts
The tragic story of Baby P, who died of horrific injuries, despite being on the child protection register for nine months and receiving, on average, twice weekly visits from social workers or health visitors, has highlighted the need for vigilance in child protection issues.
NPC’s report on child abuse, Not seen and not heard, highlights the importance of not only reporting child abuse, but also of working to prevent it in the first place.
One charity recommended in the report, The WAVE Trust, researches the causes of child abuse and ways to stop it. WAVE’s research suggests that empathy is the single greatest inhibitor of violence, and that a parent is less likely to abuse their child if they have a well-developed sense of empathy. WAVE argues that these feelings of empathy can be fostered in young children, so that the child grows up less likely to become violent.
One programme that WAVE believes can build empathy is the Nurse Family Partnership. This model sees nurses supporting new mothers intensively from pregnancy until the child reaches his or her second birthday, and has seen great success in the US, where it has cut incidences of child abuse in children up to the age of 15 by 50%. WAVE lobbied the government to introduce this model into the UK, and it is now being piloted in 30 locations, including Southwark, Tower Hamlets and Islington in London.
Even the best child protection procedures cannot stop children from being abused. But NPC argues that supporting WAVE’s research into the causes of abuse and ways it can be prevented, could help to make child abuse much less common.
< back to news archive index
