The
National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (
NSPCC) is a
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
charityA charitable organization is a type of non-profit organization . It differs from other types of NPOs in that it centers on philanthropic goals A charitable organization is a type of non-profit organization (NPO). It differs from other types of NPOs in that it centers on philanthropic goals A...
campaigning and working in child protection.
History
On a trip to New York in 1881, Liverpool businessman Thomas Agnew (1834–1924) visited the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. He was so impressed by the charity, that he returned to the UK determined to provide similar help for the children of
LiverpoolLiverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
. In 1883 he set up the Liverpool Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (LSPCC). Other towns and cities began to follow Liverpool’s example, leading in 1884 to the founding of the London Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (London SPCC) by
Lord ShaftesburyAnthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury KG , styled Lord Ashley from 1811 to 1851, was an English politician and philanthropist, one of the best-known of the Victorian era and one of the main proponents of Christian Zionism.-Youth:He was born in London and known informally as Lord Ashley...
, Reverend Edward Rudolf and Reverend
Benjamin WaughThe Reverend Benjamin Waugh was a Victorian social reformer and campaigner who founded the UK charity, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in the late 19th century, and also wrote various hymns.Waugh was born, the son of a clergyman, in Settle, North Yorkshire and...
. After five years of campaigning by the London SPCC,
ParliamentThe Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
passed the first ever UK law to protect children from abuse and neglect in 1889. The London SPCC was renamed the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Children in 1889, because by then it had branches across
Great BritainGreat Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
and
IrelandIreland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
.
The NSPCC was granted its Royal Charter in 1895, when Queen Victoria became its first Royal Patron. It did not change its title to "Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children" or similar, as the name NSPCC was already well established, and to avoid confusion with the
Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to AnimalsThe Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is a charity in England and Wales that promotes animal welfare. In 2009 the RSPCA investigated 141,280 cruelty complaints and collected and rescued 135,293 animals...
(RSPCA), which had already existed for more than fifty years. Today, the NSPCC works in
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
,
WalesWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
,
Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
, and the
Channel IslandsThe Channel Islands are an archipelago of British Crown Dependencies in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey...
.
Children 1stChildren 1st is a Scottish charity which aims to give every child in Scotland a safe and secure childhood. Also known as the Royal Scottish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children , Children 1st supports families under stress, protects children from harm and neglect, promotes children’s...
– formerly the Royal Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children – is the NSPCC's equivalent in
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. The NSPCC's organisation in the
Republic of IrelandIreland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
was taken up by the
Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to ChildrenThe Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children is an Irish charity that advocates for children's rights and provides services for children in need...
(ISPCC), founded in 1956 as a replacement for the NSPCC.
The NSPCC is the only UK charity which has been granted statutory powers under the
Children Act 1989The Children Act 1989 is a British Act of Parliament that altered the law in regard to children. In particular, it introduced the notion of parental responsibility. Later laws amended certain parts of the Children Act...
, allowing it to apply for care and supervision orders for children at risk.
Activities
The NSPCC lobbies the government on issues relating to child welfare, and creates campaigns for the general public, with the intention of raising awareness of child protection issues. It also operates both the NSPCC Helpline, offering support to anyone concerned about a child, and
ChildLineChildLine is a free 24 hour counselling service for children and young people up to 18 in the UK provided by the NSPCC. ChildLine deals with any issue which causes distress or concern, common issues dealt with include child abuse, bullying, parental separation or divorce, pregnancy and substance...
offering support to children themselves. Childline became a part of the NSPCC in 2006. In addition to the telephone helplines, NSPCC runs a similar online service called there4me.com.
The charity also runs local services. These offer general family support, as well as more specific services such as working with families with alcohol problems.
In 2009, as part of its new organisational strategy, the NSPCC launched its Child Protection Consultancy service. This provides training, consultancy and learning resources to organisations that have contact with children, ranging from schools to sporting bodies. Through the work of its Child Protection Consultancy, the NSPCC aims to make organisations safer for children and thereby prevent cruelty to children.
As well as its main web site, the NSPCC provides a specialist web site for professionals called NSPCC inform.
Campaigning and controversy
The NSPCC's campaigning role has often been controversial.
The GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
reported
New Philanthropy CapitalNew Philanthropy Capital is a charitable organisation based in London. It states its mission is to direct more funding to effective charities and help donors make more informed decisions on how to give. New Philanthropy Capital produces reports on issues of social welfare and analyses the...
recently concluded that its campaigning is "flawed and naïve" and that there is "zero evidence" that £250m the NSPCC has spent on its recent "Full Stop" campaign actually benefited any children.
The NSPCC also received complaints, amongst other things, for "cold" mailing young mothers with a "babies' names" booklet containing instead a detailed list of the deaths of babies.
In recent years, the charity has faced criticism for its stance on contact visits to children following parents' separation. The NSPCC has consistently opposed an automatic right of contact for both parents, arguing that this is not necessarily in the best interests of the child. This stance has led to criticism both in Parliament and by the
fathers' rightsThe fathers' rights movement is a movement whose members are primarily interested in issues related to family law, including child custody and child support that affect fathers and their children. Many of its members are fathers who desire to share the parenting of their children equally with their...
group Fathers4Justice. In 2004, the London headquarters of NSPCC were briefly invaded and occupied by Fathers4Justice supporters, claiming that the NSPCC "ignores the plight of 100 children a day who lose contact with their fathers" and that they promote a "portrayal of men as violent abusers."
The NSPCC also faced criticism for failing (along with other organisations) to do enough to help
Victoria ClimbiéIn 2000 in London, England, an eight-year-old Ivorian girl Victoria Adjo Climbié was tortured and murdered by her guardians...
and prevent her death, and also for misleading the inquiry into her death.
The organisation has also faced criticism for its allegedly increasing obsession with publicity and advertising, for
fear mongeringFear mongering is the use of fear to influence the opinions and actions of others towards some specific end...
and supposedly fabricating or exaggerating facts and figures in its research. In an article on
SpikedSpiked is a British Internet magazine focusing on politics, culture and society from a humanist and libertarian viewpoint.- Editors and contributors :...
,
Frank FurediFrank Furedi is professor of sociology at the University of Kent, United Kingdom. He is well known for his work on sociology of fear, therapy culture, paranoid parenting and sociology of knowledge....
professor of
sociologySociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
at the
University of KentThe University of Kent, previously the University of Kent at Canterbury, is a public research university based in Kent, United Kingdom...
, branded it a "lobby group devoted to publicising its peculiar brand of anti-parent
propagandaPropaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
and promoting itself."
David HinchliffeDavid Martin Hinchliffe was Labour Member of Parliament for Wakefield from 1987 to 2005 when he stood down and was replaced by Mary Creagh.-Early life:...
, Labour MP, supported expenditure on campaigning, stating that the NSPCC's role should be about raising awareness, whilst Conservative MP
Gerald HowarthJames Gerald Douglas Howarth known as Gerald Howarth is a British Conservative Party politician. He has been the Member of Parliament for Aldershot since 1997, having been the MP for Cannock and Burntwood from 1983 to 1992....
described it as "completely incompetent" although he cited the charity's support for reducing the homosexual age of consent to 16 as the reason for him withdrawing his support for the Full Stop campaign.
The NSPCC also helps to fund, and is aided with funds raised by, the national will-making scheme
Will aidWill Aid is a charity will-writing scheme designed to reinforce the need for everyone to have a professionally drawn-up will and to raise funds for the participating charities....
, in which participating solicitors waive their usual fee to write a basic will and in exchange invite the client to donate to charity.
Satanic ritual abuse scandal
During the late 1980s and early 1990s, a
moral panicA moral panic is the intensity of feeling expressed in a population about an issue that appears to threaten the social order. According to Stanley Cohen, author of Folk Devils and Moral Panics and credited creator of the term, a moral panic occurs when "[a] condition, episode, person or group of...
emerged over alleged ritual satanic abuse. The NSPCC provided a publication known as '
SatanicSatanic may refer to:*Satan*Satanism*Satanic , a 2006 film*Operation Satanic, when the DGSE bombed the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour...
Indicators' to social services around the country that has been blamed for some social workers panicking and making false accusations. The most prominent of these cases was in
RochdaleRochdale is a large market town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the foothills of the Pennines on the River Roch, north-northwest of Oldham, and north-northeast of the city of Manchester. Rochdale is surrounded by several smaller settlements which together form the Metropolitan...
in 1990 when up to 20 children were taken from their homes and parents after social services believed them to be involved in satanic or occult ritual abuse. The allegations were later found out to be false. The case was the subject of a BBC documentary which featured recordings of the interviews made by NSPCC social workers, revealing that flawed techniques and leading questions were used to gain evidence of abuse from the children. The documentary claimed that the social services were wrongly convinced, by organisations such as the NSPCC, that abuse was occurring and so rife that they made allegations before any evidence was considered.
Values
The NSPCC's stated core values are based on the
United NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
Convention on the Rights of the ChildThe United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is a human rights treaty setting out the civil, political, economic, social, health and cultural rights of children...
.
They are:
- Children must be protected from all forms of violence and exploitation
- Everyone has a responsibility to support the care and protection of children
- We listen to children and young people, respect their views and respond to them directly
- Children should be encouraged and enabled to fulfil their potential
- We challenge inequalities for children and young people
- Every child must have someone to turn to
See also
- Kidscape
The London-based charity Kidscape was established in 1985 by child psychologist Michele Elliott. Its focus is on children’s safety, with an emphasis on the prevention of harm by equipping children with techniques and mindsets that help them stay safe....
- Internet Watch Foundation
The Internet Watch Foundation is a non-governmental charitable body based in the United Kingdom. It states that its remit is "to minimise the availability of 'potentially criminal' Internet content, specifically images of child sexual abuse hosted anywhere, and criminally obscene adult content in...
- The Children's Society
The Children's Society, formally The Church of England Children's Society, is a UK charity allied to the Church of England and driven by a belief that all children deserve a good childhood.-History:...
- Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children
The Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children is an Irish charity that advocates for children's rights and provides services for children in need...
- Timeline of young people's rights in the United Kingdom
External links