Support for abused children ‘insufficient’, NSPCC warns

96 per cent of professionals who work with children after abuse believe the support available is ‘inadequate’, according to a survey from the NSPCC.

The NSPCC surveyed 1,308 professionals, including psychologists, GPs, teachers and social workers, asking them about their experience of working with children where the effects of abuse or neglect were a primary concern.

96 per cent of respondents said that there aren’t enough child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) and three out of four believed it was now harder to access therapeutic services than five years ago.

According to the NSPCC, many children have to wait over five months to get specialist support and 50 per cent of respondents believed that tight criteria to access local NHS mental health services means that children are increasingly struggling to access vital help.

Paired with the release of the survey, the NSPCC is launching the ‘It’s Time’ campaign, which calls on the government to: increase funding for support services for children who have suffered abuse; produce clear guidelines on when a child should be offered therapeutic support; and increase research into the scale of the problem, as well as what type of support works best.