Concerns raised to the NSPCC helpline about children being physically punished have more than tripled in a year, the charity has said.
Helpline staff heard about children being hit, slapped and shaken, with 45% of the concerns raised requiring a referral to social services, the police or other agencies.
The number of calls and emails to the helpline where physical punishment was mentioned jumped from 447 in the year to March 2023 to 1,451 in the subsequent 12 months.
More than half the total contacts to the helpline were from members of the public concerned about a parent’s behaviour, while one in 10 were from children themselves.
Professionals who work with children directly also reached out for support from the helpline, the NSPCC added.
Sir Peter Wanless, chief executive at the NSPCC, described the rise as “hugely concerning”, and renewed calls for the government to change the law.
Wales made any type of corporal punishment – including smacking, hitting, slapping and shaking – illegal in March 2022, while Scotland introduced a similar ban in November 2020.
Earlier this year, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health called for a UK-wide ban on smacking, saying the current law in England and Northern Ireland had created “grey areas”, which meant there was sometimes a defence to physical punishment.
Wanless said: “The new UK government have an opportunity to show they are committed to child protection and remove this legal anomaly which would end the use of physical punishment across the UK once and for all.”
In 2022, the then opposition leader, Keir Starmer, called on other areas of the UK to follow Wales in banning the smacking of children.
Speaking at the time, he said: “What it [the ban] does is give children the protection that adults already have, and that is the right thing.”
One adult who called the NSPCC helpline said: “I just left after visiting my friend and their three-year-old boy. Their son was messing around a bit and when he wouldn’t stop the dad pulled him over his knee and smacked him twice. I must have looked shocked because his dad said it’s OK because he never leaves bruises, but the little one was crying and hid for the rest of the visit. It didn’t feel OK.”
The NSPCC said there could be various reasons for the increase in concerns raised about physical punishment, including greater public awareness of its campaigns on the issue and a lack of understanding about what is deemed acceptable when it comes to punishing a child.
Earlier this year, researchers at University College London said that more than one in five 10-year-olds in the UK experienced physical punishment in 2020 and 2021.
Campaigners opposed to a change have previously said the current law prohibits violence against children but also protects parents from prosecution for “innocent and harmless parenting decisions”.
The Department for Education has been contacted for comment.
The NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000.
