My Lords, we should all be grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Burt, for moving this amendment, and it is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Rooker. I bring to this amendment my experience as a clinician some time ago in paediatrics—where, sadly, I admitted several abused children who had been caught in a complex cycle of domestic abuse—as well as my later clinical experience.
When children have experienced or witnessed abuse, some of them then move to live with kinship carers, or they move with the escaping parent, often to a different health provider area. They have to start all over again with schooling and health support. They may change GPs or move from one hospital referral list to another. There are waiting lists across the majority of specialty services required for many different types of support and intervention these children may need and for which they have been referred.
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At first sight, some symptoms may not appear to be directly linked to the abuse, such as a heart murmur or other congenital problems. For others, the treatment they require may be directly linked to domestic abuse, perhaps as a result of neglect, harm or an illness that has worsened due to stress and fear. There is a wealth of evidence that people with a long-term illness or a disability are more likely to experience domestic abuse, and it seems no less likely that the same applies to children, given the high rate of family breakdown when the child has particular health and social care needs.
However, if this child goes to the back of the waiting list in the new area to which they move, they are being punished for having had to move. It is hard
enough for the child to establish new relationships without also feeling that investigations or interventions that had been started at referral will all have to start over again. Many children in an abusive situation may struggle to express themselves or understand the options available to them. We must ensure that no child feels as though a choice is being made between their treatment and escaping abuse.
However, let us also consider the parent who is being abused: waiting for NHS treatment should never be a barrier to children or parents who desperately need to remove themselves from an abusive situation. This practical solution would make it easier for a victim of domestic abuse to leave their abuser and would ensure that no child needs to suffer any more than they have already as a consequence of the abuse.
However, like the noble Lord, Lord Rooker, I want this principle to stretch across the whole of the UK and to be taken from one hospital waiting list to another, irrespective of where it is in the UK. This is a small practicality, and I am sure we could get the wording right by looking at it before Report. It will be beneficial for children who have experienced domestic abuse, will not increase NHS costs and will ensure that there are proper handovers from one clinical service to another.