Nursery World - Not reporting child abuse 'should be illegal'

Professionals working with children should be required by law to report any suspicions they have about child abuse, the former director of public prosecutions has said.

In an interview with BBC’s Panorama, due to be shown on Monday evening, Keir Starmer says that the time has come for a change in the law to stop child abuse victims from slipping through the net.

Mr Starmer says that there should be ‘mandatory reporting’ by teachers and health workers, to bring Britain into line with the US, Canada and Australia.

‘The problem is, if you haven’t got a central provision requiring people to report, then all you can do is fall back on other provisions that aren’t really designed for the purpose and that usually means they run into difficulties. What you really need is a clear, direct law that everybody understands,’ he says.

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