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At what age should children be left alone?

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18 March 2016

By Mell

There is currently no law that specifies the age at which children may be left unattended. However, laws in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all say children must not be neglected or abandoned “in a manner likely to cause them unnecessary suffering or injury to health”.

Figures collected by BBC Breakfast suggest that between 2014 and 2015 in England and Wales that more than 500 people were arrested for leaving children unattended. The ages ranged from 6 weeks to 15 years, however, the majority of arrests involved children aged 10 years or younger.

The government refers parents to the NSPCC guidance, which says that deciding when to leave children home alone is a “tricky decision” with no “hard and fast rules” because every child is different.

The guidance says “It’s safe to say babies, toddlers and young children should never be left alone even if it’s just while you pop down the road”.

It also suggests children under the age of 12 are “rarely mature enough to cope in an emergency and should not be left alone overnight”.

Extreme examples of children being left alone.

A group of six children, aged from three to fourteen, were left by their mother while she took a six-week trip to Australia. She received a suspended prison sentence.

A mother was jailed after leaving her 15-month-old daughter at home every day for a week while she went out drinking.

Two mothers were each given a six-month sentence, suspended for two years, after leaving two children, aged six and seven, in a flat for twelve hours.

The Supreme Court in Canada placed an order of protection against the mother of an eight-year-old boy after she had been leaving him unsupervised between 3pm and 5pm each day after school.

A mother in Denham, Buckinghamshire, left her 3-month-old baby to sleep in the garden whilst she went out to do her ‘weekly shop’.

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