1.2m abused children ‘let down by healthcare’

Around 1.2million abused children are being let down by mental health services, according to the NSPCC.

Its report says that 83 per cent of local health plans in England are inadequate, with one in five failing to give any detail at all on how they will care for abused or neglected children following its analysis of NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGS).

Prof Tanya Byron, NSPCC trustee and clinical psychologist, said: “It is unacceptable that despite the huge number of children estimated to have been abused, and the known link between abuse and mental health, the vast majority of our health services do not have a proper care strategy.”