NSPCC seeks domestic violence steps

The initiative will begin in November and aims to combat the myth that children living in abusive households do not suffer abuse themselves. The charity will encourage policy makers and professionals working with children to realise that domestic violence is not just a criminal justice issue, but a child welfare one too.

The charity wants the government to recognise that children can be affected by domestic violence in its official definition of the term. It also seeks to improve national and local responses to domestic violence to give victims better support and access to advocacy and properly resourced therapeutic services.

Phillip Noyes, director of public policy at the NSPCC, said the charity had been speaking to the government to discuss better funding for therapeutic services for children. "We haven't been successful yet but feel it's important that we resource it properly," he said. "But it's not going to happen on its own because resources are tight."

Noyes said parents had to take some responsibility for making sure their children were getting help if there was domestic violence in their lives. "We'd like to get the message to parents that if they think their children don't know about what's going on and aren't affected by it, then they're deceiving themselves," he said. "They should get help for themselves and for their children."

The campaign will also seek to raise professional awareness of domestic violence, as Noyes said some staff see it as mainly an adult issue. "We want to help professionals with awareness and training, especially people in the health services as they have more access to children," he said. He added that he wanted professionals to address domestic violence on occasions when they suspected it was taking place.

Noyes said the NSPCC would also be campaigning for smacking children to be outlawed, so that children did not grow up to think that violence towards anybody was normal.

"We want to stop physical punishment to convey the message that no form of family violence is acceptable," he said. "Hitting a child is the last legally sanctioned form of family violence and it's time it went too."