Last night Stockport councillors across parties were in agreement that we should look for more and better ways to help children who are suffering from domestic violence or who are in care.

At the Children and Young People’s Scrutiny Committee, councillors including Ann Smith, Wendy Orrell and Maureen Rowles spoke passionately of the need to help young people suffering because they’re personally victims of domestic violence, or they’re witnesses to it going on in their households. Cllr Rowles wanted us all to be more willing to stand up and report concerns about neighbours.

Stockport doesn’t do badly for our children in this respect – certainly on national comparisons. Everyone recognised this is a national issue across all local authorities. But we know from national research that 80-90% of abuse currently goes undetected.

Cllr Mark Weldon, the Executive member for Children and Young People, agreed there was much to do, and rightly pointed out that we’ve come a long way as a society in recent decades. We don’t have to go back very far to be in a time when violence against children – both physical and psychological – was seen as a positive thing (“spare the rod, spoil the child”). More recently it was simply ignored and hidden. The Police thought “just a domestic” meant it wasn’t a real crime and teachers would rarely intervene.

Today, society is moving steadily towards the view that all violence against children is wrong, just as it is against adults. Police, teachers and others are trained to spot the signs of abuse, and it’s taken very seriously.

There are many issues we can look at in Stockport. How do we improve parenting skills amongst those who need it? Can we do better at picking up problems (whilst getting the balance right – no-one wants the local authority snooping indiscriminately in people’s houses or intervening in families where there’s no problem). Can we do better at intervening as early as possible – these problems often start even before the child is born. Do we understand what the Care system is really for and what we’re trying to achieve from it? Can we improve outcomes for children taken into care (“looked after children”)?

Cllr Paul Porgess suggested a Scrutiny Review on the subject. That’s where a group of councillors get together and take a much more detailed look at a problem over several months. They might call witnesses, go on visits and look at what’s being done elsewhere. That’s likely to happen later this year, though it isn’t fixed yet.

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