Toolkit to help teachers spot suspected child abuse goes live
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Add as a favourite source on Google Add DutchNews as a favourite source on GoogleSchools have started using a new digital support package to help teachers alert the authorities to cases of suspected domestic abuse and neglect.
The toolkit has been developed to try to increase the number of reports from schools, which is lower in the Netherlands than in neighbouring countries.
It is the product of two years of research that began when a series of cases came to light in which children had been systematically abused and tortured by their families. The children attended school but teachers were either unaware of the problems at home or unwilling to intervene.
Since 2019 teachers have been required to pass on details of children who they suspect of being abused to Veilig Thuis, the agency that specialises in domestic abuse and can compel parents to accept help.
The education minister at the time, Hugo de Jonge, said on average every classroom contained one child who was a victim of abuse or neglect at home.
The number of reports schools has almost doubled in the last seven years to around 4,000, while Veilig Thuis has advised in more than 9,500 other cases.
Need for training
But experts warn that teachers still lack the necessary expertise and are reluctant to contact the authorities because they fear repercussions from parents.
Carlijn van Baak, a researcher at the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement who helped develop the toolkit, told NOS: “Teachers don’t receive training in recognising the signs of child abuse as standard, but in practice it is very difficult because it’s not always obvious.”
She said teachers often had suspicions of abuse but were unsure of how to deal with it. “They try to organise help for the family, but it is often unclear what exactly is going on and when they should make a report.”
Veilig Thuis has also warned it is at the limits of its capacity to investigate abuse cases. Last year it dealt with 136,000 cases, two-thirds of which involved families who were previously unknown to the agency.
“At the moment we can’t guarantee that we can respond to every alert about safety in time,” Ida Ouweneel, a manager at Veilig Thuis’s national network, told NOS last month. “That’s very concerning for us.”
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