May urges action on child re-abuse
The Conservative spokesperson on the family has urged the Government to urgently review its childcare strategy after new research revealed that almost one in three returned children suffer re-abuse.
The research, based in Wales and published in the British Medical Journal, tracked 69 babies who had been abused before the age of 12 months for the next three years through information gleaned from health and social services.
It found that babies that had been abused were at “a very high risk of further abuse” with one in three re-abused within three years.
Of the 69 babies, five died from their abuse, and one child went abroad and could not be traced. Fourteen of the babies were permanently removed from their homes, although one was re-abused during a contact visit.
Of the remaining 49 who were allowed to return home after child protection investigations, 15 were abused again within three years – a rate of 31 per cent.
The research also noted that there were serious welfare concerns about the siblings of those children abused.
The authors argued: “All this represents a serious failure in secondary prevention in babies where the consequences can be death and disability.
“We must focus child protection services more on actually protecting babies and be more cautious where intervention involves their reintroduction to their families.”
They warned that many social and health visitors are not trained to recognise that once abused, babies are at a greater risk of subsequent abuse.
Commenting on the study, Theresa May questioned the assumption that children are best off with their natural families wherever possible, saying: “What seems apparent from this research is that too many children continue to be abused when placed back in their own homes. Care workers have a very difficult task in spotting cases of abuse, but where the parents are known abusers there can simply be no excuse for getting it wrong.
“We have a duty to ensure that the safeguards are rigorous enough to prevent children from being put as such unnecessary risk. Everyone is all too aware of the shameful failings that surrounded Victoria Climbie. But it is essential that care workers do not put children at an enhanced risk in their desire to reunite families.
“The Government must now urgently review the strategy in place for returning children to parents in cases of proven abuse, to ensure these kind of statistics are never repeated.”
