Alternative Perspective to NSPCC – closing ‘Loopholes in Sport’ VictoriaLIVE 26.1.17
- The NSPCC suggestions for changes to the DBS system will only protect children from abusers who are already known.
- The shortcomings arising from the DBS being relaxed in 2012, which can permit ‘barred’ people to work with children periodically if they are supervised, was debated in the House of Lords during the passage of the Protection of Freedoms Act in November 2011 by two peers with distinguished sporting backgrounds. Why only now has the NSPCC alighted on this issue? Should it not have been raising this point and objecting to the legislation when it was going through Parliament?
- The NSPCC proposal to extend duty of care to 16 and 17 year olds, which already exists in education, is a sound principle. It will though have a limited effect in practice because data [Characteristics Children in Need 2014-15 Table A3 – https://goo.gl/TDiFgq ] indicates the proportion of children suffering abuse or neglect (both sexes) in this age group is 14% while in the younger group, which is already included within the scheme, it is 86%. Furthermore the proposal is still dependant on ‘discretionary reporting’ of known and suspected abuse which data reveals is unreliable leading to under reporting. An example. England and Wales are out of step with the majority of jurisdictions in the rest of the world in not having some form of mandatory reporting of known and suspected child abuse.