Why we're backing the NSPCC and urging our readers to do so too

Over the last few weeks, as part of our annual appeal, Herald writers have highlighted the broad scope of the work carried out by the NSPCC in Scotland.

Much of it is highly innovative. From the 10 minute film shown to new parents to help them cope with stress - which aims to cut 'shaken baby' cases where a mum or dad deliberately harms their child, to work with drug or alcohol abusing parents to prevent their children being neglected, the charity is at the forefront of testing out new approaches.

That is quite deliberate, according to NSPCC Scotland head of service Matt Forde. "We want to make child abuse of all sorts a thing of the past," he explains. One of the charity's tactics is to look at innovations in other countries. This is why Mr Forde has just returned from a sabbatical in American and Northern Europe. "The NSPCC tries to look at other countries and think about what we might do differently in Scotland, and how the NSPCC can help with that," he explains. "for the past few years we've been running services designed to test new ways of working that deal with problems that until now we haven't known how to deal with." These include issues like parental addiction or mental health problems.

Much innovative work is carried out America, and the NSPCC has successfully imported the Minding the Baby programme, developed at Yale University, while the Louisiana method for speeding up assessments of children who may need foster care is being tested in Glasgow and could have a major impact.

However America does not have all the answers, Forde says. "The US has very pronounced inequality and Unicef regularly has the country at or near the bottom of its scorecard for the wellbeing of children.

"The countries doing best are those in Northern Europe - the Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands. These are countries with a commitment to equality and the welfare state."

Lessons from these countries are already being learned, he says, indeed some are already national policy, such as attempting to intervene early in the lives of at-risk kids and the introduction of family nurse partnerships which see workers visiting young mums and which are working well in other countries.

"The NSPCC will continue to fly the flag for testing other new ways of working to reach families with the most difficulties," Forde adds.

"We are not fatalistic about the idea that child abuse is always going to happen. We think it is a problem we can solve in Scotland."

But that work is not funded by government. Unlike many other large charities which undertake contracts on behalf of the state the NSPCC relies on the public fund the majority of its work. This protects its independence and can be a comfort when public sector cutbacks are making life hard for many charities. It also allows the NSPCC to act as a catalyst, trying new things and persuading governments, councils and health boards to look at better ways of working.

However it brings its own, obvious pressures.

"As 90% of our income comes from non-government sources we can be an independent voice for children. That is why we have to speak constantly to the public to get their support. It is not easy, but we think it is right," Forde explains. "Investing in testing something new is the first thing many organisations cut when funding is tight but even though the climate is tough, we need to keep investing in finding the best ways to prevent abuse. It may be risky, but we think it is too much of a risk not to."

Success for the charity, he says, is proving something works, and then lobbying to make sure every child has access to it.

"That is why we are really grateful for the generosity of Herald readers for the commitment they have shown to protecting children, and to the paper for giving us the opportunity to talk to the public about our what we do."