Safeguarding children

The Government has defined the term ‘safeguarding children’ as:
‘The process of protecting children from abuse or neglect, preventing impairment of their health and development, and ensuring they are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care that enables children to have optimum life chances and enter adulthood successfully.’


According to NSPCC
53 children a day are abused.
1 in 10 adults has been severely neglected as a child.
Disabled children or children with learning disabilities are 20% more likely 'than average' to run away.
As many as 1 in 9 mothers have shaken their baby and 2 in 9 have felt like shaking their baby.


An article i read into...

'Emma was 14 when she met her first 'boyfriend'. He – in his 30s – bought her presents, picked her up in his car, told her he loved her.
But he soon changed. He became violent and before long was forcing her to have sex with his friends. Then, like a toy, Emma was passed on, shipped around the country and raped by countless men. "I got taken to flats. I don't know where they were and men would be brought to me," she said. "I was never given any names and I don't remember their faces."

Emma's story is one of unimaginable horror, but according to children's charity Barnardo's there are many more victims like her, and numbers are growing. "Barnardo's knows that sexual exploitation is going on in every town and city in the UK," said chief executive Ann Marie Carrie. "Child victims continue to go unidentified as tell-tale signs are overlooked from the front line of children's services to the corridors of Whitehall.'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/jan/17/childprotection-children

Link with some pretty horrific storys of abuse/torture to children:
http://www.imperfectparent.com/topics/2007/11/21/one-of-the-most-horrendous-child-abuse-stories-ever/