Search Mobile

collapse

already registered?

Please sign in with your existing account details.

Email address

Password

need to register?

Register to access exclusive content, sign up to receive our updates and personalise your experience on brownejacobson.com.

Privacy statement - Terms and conditions

Forgotten your password?

collapseSign

Browne Jacobson home

Home

Insights

Blogs

Proposed abuse law a backward step

proposed abuse law a backward step

4 November 2013

Keir Starmer has reignited the debate over a ‘mandatory reporting’ law for concerns over sexual abuse, suggesting it should be a criminal offence to fail to report suspicions.

I do not see what this would achieve. Does it guarantee safer children or will it lead to a deluge of police referrals from professionals who will no longer engage with safeguarding concerns, but simply pass on absolutely everything for fear of breaking the law?

This law is not aimed at the vast majority of professionals who manage safeguarding concerns appropriately, but at the minority who do not. That minority already face the risk of a bar from teaching and thus the end of their careers for failing to act – as happened to the head responsible for Nigel Leat. Would the risk of a fine or worse have changed that outcome?

As robust an approach as new laws always sound, there is a real risk it could lead to a weakening of the current safeguarding standards within schools.

related opinions

Home Office Central Registry for modern slavery statement goes live - first universities publish statements

The Home Office recently launched a central registry for modern slavery statements. A growing number of educational organisations, including a number of universities, have published statements on the registry.

View blog

Allegations of abuse in schools, colleges and universities

The website “Everyone’s Invited” is a movement which is “committed to eradicating rape culture” and describes “rape culture” as “all the ways that different forms of aggressive and violent sexual behaviour are normalised, encouraged and even admired by society”. Find out more.

View blog

Lateral flow daily contact testing paused

Following last week’s Guardian article about the concerns over lateral flow daily testing for those identified as having been a close contact of a person testing positive for Covid-19, Public Health England (PHE) and NHS Test and Trace (NHSTT) have published a position statement to recommend that daily contact testing in schools will be paused.

View blog

The lateral flow testing of university students

Guidance for students returning to, and starting higher education, in spring term 2021 requires universities to set a clear expectation that all students should access Covid-19 testing on their return to university.

View blog

View all blogs