The National Commission of Inquiry into the Prevention of Child Abuse: will it make a difference?

✍ Scribed by Christine Walby

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 173 KB
• Volume: 7
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0952-9136
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-0852(199803/04)7:2<77::aid-car477>3.0.co;2-7

✦ Synopsis

The Commission will consider current provision and make recommendations for a national strategy for the prevention (my emphasis) of child abuse and neglect in the United Kingdom. It will give prime consideration to law and social policy provisions, service provision, professional practice, and the role of parenting. It will look at the external factors which impinge upon child abuse and neglect and recognize that the prevention of abuse involves all sectors of the community.'

The evidence received revealed a remarkable consistency of view and con®rmed a perception that what needs to be done is well known, at least by those with experience in the ®eld, and has been proposed before. The major impediment to progress therefore may be a lack of conviction and will among those with hands on the levers of power.

Only time will demonstrate whether the independent status which was, and still is, regarded as important to the Commission's work helped or jeopardized the overall in¯uence of the Commission's report Childhood Matters.

Respondents appeared to be encouraged by the concept of an independent group of individuals, unconstrained by government priorities and agendas and not all professionally associated with child abuse. We were impressed by the fact