One child in five ‘has suffered abuse or neglect’

Almost a million children aged between 11 and 17 in the UK were affected, with children being beaten up, hit with weapons, raped or seriously neglected, the NSPCC survey showed.

Andrew Flanagan, the charity’s chief executive, said there were likely to be severely maltreated children in every secondary school across the country.

“The scale and impact of child abuse requires a major shift towards earlier intervention in child protection,” he said.

“When children do not get the protection and support they need when they most need it, they can be vulnerable to continuing physical or mental harm and further abuse.

“There are likely to be severely maltreated children in every secondary school across the country. Some will face abuse and neglect while still at school. Others will have suffered abuse and neglect in early childhood.”

The survey of more than 2,200 children showed 18.6 per cent had been physically attacked by an adult, sexually abused, or severely neglected.

Only physical abuse which resulted in an injury, such as bruising or a broken bone, or which involved the use of a weapon was included in the survey, the NSPCC said. Smacking was excluded.

Sexual abuse was only counted if it involved a physical element and efforts were taken to exclude instances of consensual sex among young people.

And severe neglect was restricted to a constant pattern of neglect, such as children going without food or clothes, or never being praised or told that they were loved, the NSPCC said.

The figures also showed one in 14 (6.9 per cent) children had been physically attacked by an adult, with parents or guardians responsible for more than half (55 per cent) of serious adult violence.

One in 20 (4.8 per cent) had been sexually assaulted, including 3 per cent who had been raped or forced into sex by another child and two per cent who had been sexually abused by an adult.

And 1.4 per cent of children suffered physical neglect, the figures showed.

Mr Flanagan went on: “Physical violence, neglect and forced sex are still harming the lives of hundreds of thousands of children, and most of it remains unreported.

“Successive governments have taken steps to improve child protection but local authorities are under strain providing child protection plans for only a small proportion of cases.”

But Mr Flanagan added that a separate survey of more than 1,700 18- to 24-year-olds showed progress was being made in the fight against child cruelty compared with when a similar survey was carried out in 1998/99.

The proportion of young adults beaten up, knocked down, choked or threatened with a weapon in childhood dropped from 13 per cent to 10 per cent, with instances of such violence happening on a regular basis falling from six per cent to two per cent.

Children’s Minister Tim Loughton said the report’s findings were “particularly poignant and demonstrate the impact public awareness and action has had in cutting levels of abuse”.

He also announced an £11.2m grant to the NSPCC over the next four years to “help them to deliver an important frontline national service”.