Fall in protection training means abuse could be missed
Neil Puffett
Monday, June 27, 2011
Child abuse victims are likely to go undetected because of a massive drop in professionals taking up child protection training including school staff, a major provider has warned.
Claude Knights, director of charity Kidscape, said that over the past two years enquiries relating to training courses it provides have plummeted by more than 50 per cent.
She said that whereas previously the charity had been receiving around 50 enquiries per week, the figure was now closer to 20.
Knights said it appeared that organisations are continuing to train people where they need certification but there are significantly less numbers undergoing non-statutory training.
"Training generally is down," she said. "The uptake has fallen dramatically. People are turning off the training budget if they think it is not crucial - but it is crucial.
"There has been a huge fall in training in schools, so there are staff not being equipped to help children. It is going to have a long-term effect if staff do not know how to look out for and listen to a child who may be anxious because they are being neglected or abused."
Reduced demand for training has also affected the finances of charities that charge for the services, Knights added.
News of the decrease at Kidscape comes after the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop) last month revealed a drop in the number of professionals it trains.
Ceop trained 2,084 professionals in 2010/11, a fall of 38.2 per cent on the 2009/10 figure of 3,370.
