In an Early Day Motion on reducing the number of child deaths from abuse, Paul Burstow, the Liberal Democrat spokesman for children, proposed, 'That this House believes that the numbers of children in this country who die through abuse and neglect is unacceptable and that public policy has failed to reduce the level of child deaths over the last 30 years.'
Government statistics show that severe physical abuse is 120 times more common in babies than in children aged five to 13, with the UK homicide rate for children who are one year old nearly four times greater than any other age group. Also, each week in the UK one or two children are killed by their parents and carers, and, of these child deaths, 60 per cent are aged under four.
Mr Burstow also expressed his concern that the chief inspector of social services, in her 11th annual report, revealed that 3 per cent of children on the child protection register and 5 per cent of looked-after children are not allocated a social worker, which meant that up to 4,000 children are 'without a safety net'.
He pointed out that there was no systematic follow-up for child deaths or a co-ordinated strategy to reduce the number of child deaths in the UK. He called on the Government to place area child protection committees on a statutory footing 'by placing a duty on all the agencies involved in child protection to participate in the work of the committee and support the local authority in discharging its child protection role'.
He also made a further call on the Government 'to establish an independent children's commissioner to promote and protect the rights of all children.'
There is already a children's commissioner in Wales, and both Scotland and Northern Ireland are in the process of appointing their own commissioners.
