Letter in support of the NSPCC "I stand for children" campaign

Dear elector

Thank you for writing to me about the NSPCC's "I stand for children" campaign. I am really impressed by the number of electors who have contacted me about this. I have been happy to pledge my support for the "I stand for children" campaign by signing in on the Political Exchange website. As a father of four children (now all grown up), I feel strongly about this issue. Protecting children seems to me to be an essential part of any civilisation, and this is both a personal and a political duty. I am convinced that if a concerted effort is made, and with proper public and voluntary support for children, we can make a difference - especially with the most serious cases of abuse.

The "I stand for children" campaign asks the next Parliament to:

• ensure that vital child protection reforms are fully implemented and resourced, following the death of Baby Peter and other child deaths since;

• continue to fund helpline services for children, and for adults concerned about a child's safety or welfare;

• tackle domestic violence from a child's point of view;

• make the internet safer for children;

• strengthen the role of the Children's Commissioner in England; and

• provide resources for therapeutic services for children who have experienced abuse.

My party's policies are fully in line with this campaign. The Liberal Democrats produced a paper on child protection in 2009. In this we specifically committed to many of the requests made by the NSPCC, and brought forward a number of detailed, carefully thought out proposals to assist in the protection of vulnerable children.

I feel we must all work together to break out of the awful round of failure, deaths, enquiries, recommendations and more failure. My own personal view is that the insistence on putting child protection within the same local authority department as education was likely to fail in its aim of protecting children, was more likely to make things worse, and will one day have to be reversed (but I stress that this is a personal view only).

The Liberal Democrats are committed to continuing to fund Childline. We have called for helpline services to be made accessible to adults as well, so people know when and how to report suspected abuse.

The Liberal Democrats have supported calls for the Home Office to change its definition of domestic violence so as to include the impact of domestic violence on the children of the family. Annette Brooke MP, Liberal Democrat Shadow Minister for Children, Schools and Families, recently tabled an Early Day Motion in the House of Commons calling for this change.

The Liberal Democrats have set out plans for online bullying and abuse to be tackled by using quick-report buttons on social networking sites, enabling offensive postings to be speedily removed, and concerns about abuse to be addressed immediately. My personal view is that the police need to do much more to trace and close down websites, social networking sites, etc., which promote sexual abuse of children, self-starvation, self-mutilation, bullying or suicide.

The Liberal Democrats believe that the Children's Commissioner should be truly independent. It is important that she works closely with a variety of children's charities, and is happy to speak out when she thinks things are going wrong. However I personally feel she was mistaken to propose raising the age of criminal responsibility so that the killers of James Bulger could not have been prosecuted.

The Liberal Democrats are committed to the provision of therapeutic services. Therapeutic services for young people appear to be one of the most effective ways of ensuring that childhood trauma and abuse does not permanently damage life chances.

Sincerely

Chris Bramall

Liberal Democrat Parliamentary candidate

Stourbridge constituency

(Stourbridge/Quarry Bank/Cradley/Dudley Wood)

P.S. For reasons of election law I need to add my agent's details:

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Published and promoted by Simon Hanson on behalf of Chris Bramall (Liberal Democrats),

both at 35 Chawn Hill, Stourbridge, West Midlands, DY9 7JA.