I was a bit depressed to hear Graham Stuart
MP, the chairman of the House of Commons Education Committee, asking Professor
Eileen Munro whether the definition of child neglect should be changed - http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Player.aspx?meetingId=10841
But the representatives of some leading
children’s charities, who seem to have got this bee in their bonnets, have already badgered his committee, so I suppose he has some excuse.
I cheered up when Prof. Munro told him that
she saw no reasons to change the definitions of the Children Act 1989. She
seemed less certain about the crime of Child Cruelty, as set out in Section 1
of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933, but she gave Stuart no reason to
think that this should be changed either.
I hope the Committee don’t get side tracked
on this issue of the definition of neglect. There are more important things to
think about.
