The government is giving consideration to creating a new criminal offence to prosecute those who cause deliberate emotional harm to children. It seems they have gathered evidence to show that some parents go out of their way to cause psychological suffering to their children. On the same day we hear that the NSPCC have a new report out saying that local authorities are so strapped for cash that they are only managing to deal with the tip of the iceberg to provide help and support as well as much needed protection for children suffering from all forms of abuse. Apparently, in the light of the Jimmy Saville\u00a0 scandal there are many more reports of child abuse to social services departments than was previously the case and far more than local authorities have the resources to cope with.<\/p>\n
So what\u2019s to be done? It must be extremely hard to prove that a child is suffering from emotional harm. It must be even more difficult to prove that it is being done deliberately. I would like to think that more resources could be put into frontline work so that social workers can help protect those children who are at risk of suffering harm \u00a0– that the children \u00a0are given the help they need and that social workers are able to take necessary legal action to protect those who are actually suffering harm where it is clear to see that harm is being done. In my experience it is far more likely that parents and carers are unaware of the emotional damage they are doing to their children than that they are setting about to do it deliberately. Whether or not those responsible for the abuse are aware of what they are doing, the children need to be given help.<\/p>\n
Whilst it might sound horrific that social workers want to remove children from their parents, sometimes they may see this as the only way forward. Sometimes social workers may get it wrong. Unless parents agree with what social workers want to do then it has to go to a court for a\u00a0 decision to be made. Legal Aid is still widely available for cases involving child protection. Don\u2019t hesitate to involve a specialist solicitor if this happened to you. Seek advice from a local solicitor on the Law Society\u2019s Children Panel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The government is giving consideration to creating a new criminal offence to prosecute those who cause deliberate emotional harm to children. It seems they have gathered evidence to show that some parents go out of their way to cause psychological suffering to their children. On the same day we hear […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[331,341],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-children-2","category-familylaw"],"yoast_head":"\n