#DfE

/Tag:#DfE

The impact of poorly designed mandatory reporting is far-reaching

In the USA two pressure groups are seeking to get their respective State Governments, Pennsylvania and New York City, to scrap their poorly designed versions of mandatory reporting of ‘child abuse’.

We sympathise, with the significant exception of Mandatory Reporting of known and suspected child sexual abuse, on reasonable grounds. Mandatory reporting for CSA has not been revoked in any jurisdiction in the world, indeed many jurisdictions have strengthened and extended the law to more professionals, Switzerland being just one; Western Australia is another even more recent example. Data and empirical evidence demonstrate MR of child sexual abuse by prescribed professionals is a vital component of functioning safeguarding for institutional settings (known in the UK as ‘Regulated Activities’). These key personnel also have a vitally important ‘sentinel’ role of safeguarding children who may be abused in the family or elsewhere.

Here are two articles featuring the campaigns of both US jurisdictions. (more…)

March 27th, 2023|

MandateNow response to @NSPCC July policy briefing: Strengthening duties on professionals to report child abuse

MandateNow has invested time to respond to these flawed proposals because their author, the NSPCC, appears to have evolved into a lobbyist of the public for its client the Department of Education. You can read our response here.

In mid August the NSPCC published a Policy Briefing titled: Strengthening duties on professionals to report child abuse, which is a tacit acknowledgement the safeguarding framework for Regulated Activities, which the NSPCC supported for decades, does not work. The charity has been forced to issue this paper in reaction to the clamour from campaigners and the public, for an effective legislative foundation on which reliable child protection can be created and delivered.

The policy briefing contains two proposals the first of which was announced on BBC R4 Today programme on 09 July 14. MandateNow provided a response  just three hours later in an interview with James O’Brian.

The second proposal is for restricted Mandatory Reporting to be introduced in only a limited selection of Regulated Activities.

Supercedes v.090914

September 13th, 2014|