Rejected petition A dedicated department responsible for investigating neglect or abuse of children within institutions including schools, religions and care homes.

We need a dedicated dept within the government that will investigate any suspected case of child neglect/abuse. Schools have nothing in place to investigate internal management. A pilot scheme run under the Local Government Ombudsman has been discontinued leaving our children open to neglect by unmonitored head teachers & governors. Priests that abuse children are often moved from church to church with investigations kept internal & with no action taken to protect the abused. As part of religious rituals girls undergo circumcision where their genitals are mutilated. In our country this is illegal & yet nobody investigates or presses charges. Children are abused in care homes up & down the country & yet they have few routes for confiding in someone they trust. Evidence is often 'lost' & they receive no long term aftercare for their horrific ordeals that bring lifelong emotional/physiological damage. Social Services are overstretched & often say they have no jurisdiction in these cases.