THE First Minister is under pressure to make a commitment in the SNP’s Holyrood election manifesto to ban parents from smacking their children.
Dr Lucy Reynolds, a consultant community paediatrician and a fellow of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, is urging Nicola Sturgeon as well as the other party leaders to promise to change the law in the new parliament.
She made the appeal after calls in July by the UN Human Rights Committee for Scotland to repeal “all legal defences for smacking”.
Her intervention also follows the publication of a major report last month highlighting its association with child abuse. The study also found smacking could make children’s behaviour worse.
“Hitting a child might make a child stop doing what they’re doing that instant but in terms of improving their behaviour in the longer term it does not work,” Reynolds told The Herald.
“There is also a risk that children who are smacked are more likely to hit out at others as children learn by example. Smacking a child is telling them that it is acceptable for big powerful people to physically oppress those who are more vulnerable.”
Citing the Scottish Government’s move to increase nursery education provision, its commitment to an anti-austerity agenda and its Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) framework, Dr Reynolds said ministers were moving in “the right direction” in terms of creating a society where children could flourish.
“These are the sort of policies that have been pursued in the Nordic countries where child well-being is high. These countries have all prohibited physical punishment. Not doing so is at odds with GIRFEC which is about nurturing and protecting children. Scotland needs to follow suit,” she said.
“I appeal to the First Minister and all the party leaders to put a change in the law in their Holyrood manifesto. I would like to see agreement on the issue as the parties prepare to launch their campaigns for May.”
Last month Ireland became the latest country to ban smacking, joining 46 others including Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Spain, Greece, Finland, Estonia, and New Zealand.
Reynolds said the ban was not about criminalising parents but about bringing in legislation which would change attitudes and set standards of correct behaviour.
“It is not the experience in 47 countries that parents are being criminalised. So I don’t know why we should think it would be any different in Scotland,” she said.
“We have good evidence that legislation impacts on public attitudes. For example if someone lights up in a gig they are not whisked off to jail but the rest of us in the crowd feel we can speak out. Laws are not just there to criminalise people but to influence standards of behaviour.”
Dr Reynolds, who is a specialist in child development in Glasgow, would also like to see a public information campaign and support in positive parenting techniques run alongside a change in the law.
Last month the Equally Protected report, commissioned by NSPCC, Barnardo's Scotland, Children 1st and Scotland's Children's Commissioner, found a strong link between physical punishment and child abuse.
The study which reviewed existing international research said: “One meta-analysis and six individual studies all …concluded that physical punishment and child maltreatment are related…Outcomes included parental use of severe physical violence, injury requiring medical attention and household involvement with Child Protective Services.”
It also criticised the Scottish Government for continuing to maintain that a low level of physical punishment is legal and acceptable. Instead, it should be viewed as a clear violation of children's human rights, the authors said, and children should be given more protection from violence than adults.
The evidence in the report was drawn from a review of 74 studies carried out around the world including the findings of two pieces of research in Scotland, the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) and the Growing Up in Scotland (GUS) reports.
Children in households experiencing poverty, where parents were struggling with drug or alcohol abuse or coping with relationship problems were more likely to be smacked.
The Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003 allows parents or carers to hit a child so long as the punishment goes no further than "reasonable chastisement". Hitting a child on the head or with an implement, or shaking a child is not allowed.
In 2003, Scottish ministers dropped proposals for a ban on physically punishing children under three after a public backlash.
An SNP spokesman said: “We do not support the physical punishment of children. The SNP government is currently developing practical advice for parents on different approaches to managing their children's behaviour, in line with the national Parenting Strategy."
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