NSPCC launches child abuse survey

The National Survey of Child Safety and Victimisation will be based on interviews with 6,000 children and young people between the ages of 11 and 24, conducted from now until November. Parents of children up to the age of ten will also be interviewed.

The charity will also carry out a study of officially recorded child-protection statistics, and a follow-up study with 80 18- to 24-year-olds to examine the aftermath of abuse.

The survey will give a new indication of levels of violence and abuse against children, a decade on from the NSPCC's earlier study, Child Maltreatment in the UK. That found that 16 per cent of respondents had experienced sexual abuse before the age of 16, while seven per cent had experienced "serious physical abuse" from their parents or carers.

Lorraine Radford, NSPCC's head of research, said: "This study's findings will give us a better understanding of how prevalent child abuse is now, and how that compares to a decade ago. We hope it will also help us gain an insight into young survivors' views on the most effective ways to support them."

The survey will be conducted by the British Market Research Bureau on behalf of the NSPCC. The charity is writing to directors of children's services and the police to tell them about the survey in case they get inquiries from children and young people or parents asked to take part in it.

The survey's findings will be published in 2010.