A murdered North East toddler’s family has vowed to continue their fight for stronger safeguarding laws to protect children, after a debate in Parliament, writes Local Democracy Reporter, Daniel Holland.
Two-year-old Maya Chappell died after being violently shaken by her mother’s boyfriend, Michael Daymond, at her home in Shotton Colliery in 2022.
Her great aunts, Gemma Chappell and Rachael Walls, have been campaigning for the introduction of Maya’s Law – which would require authorities to share information with a parent or guardian if another parent or caregiver’s known history poses a risk to their child.
After gaining more than 110,000 signatures, their petition was debated in Parliament on Monday evening.
While the Government has insisted that it is already taking steps to strengthen safeguarding measures, ministers are being urged to go further and faster.
Gemma told the Local Democracy Reporting Service on Tuesday that she was “gutted” that the Government had not agreed to implement Maya’s Law yet, but took positives from the Westminster Hall debate.
She welcomed the reforms being enacted currently, but echoed frustration that child protection measures in the planned Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill had not yet become law.
Gemma, of Consett, said: “While these people [MPs] are talking and writing, children are being killed, being abused, being left on their own with no voice. We need to move on from conversation and negotiation to action.”
She added: “Taking Maya’s Law to Parliament and having Maya spoken about there is the biggest thing we could have had at this point. To get 110,000 signatures and have a massive backing, it has been amazing to get here.
“We are gutted, upset, disheartened. But we are not naive, we know this is a long process and it takes time. It is a big piece of legislation that we are asking for and we know it is a process, so we have to be mindful of that.
“The positives we take from it is that we had a cross-Parliament discussion, it was not just our MPs from the North East who turned up. That was great and the information they put across was just spot on, it really had all the key points. I think it really showed the complexities of safeguarding, particularly child safeguarding.”
Sunderland Central Labour MP Lewis Atkinson led Monday’s debate and told colleagues that Maya’s family wanted a “clear timeline” for the Government’s reforms to be implemented and that he too found it “frustrating”.
He pointed out that their key demand “remains outstanding”, a strengthened right for parents and close family members to request and to be proactively given information about the risks that other adults might pose to a child.
Mr Atkinson said: “Let us hope that we can get this legislation passed, as well as the following statutory guidance, which will take us a step closer to Maya’s law and the progress and action that the family requires. I know that Gemma and Rachael wanted to ensure that Maya’s voice was heard in Parliament today, and I hope they feel that it has been.”
Children’s minister Josh MacAlister told the debate that “changes to deliver the goals of Maya’s law are, I believe, in train”.
He said: “At the moment, the Government are taking action to strengthen information sharing in particular in three separate but complimentary ways. First, through strengthening the child sex offender disclosure scheme, which been referenced throughout the debate; secondly, through the introduction of a child cruelty register, which was not something on the cards when we last had this debate in October; and thirdly, through introducing a new information sharing duty in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.”
Mr MacAlister vowed to keep working with Maya’s family and to “honour Maya’s memory with not just words but change as soon as possible, so that no child is left unprotected, and no family unheard”.
Blaydon and Consett MP Liz Twist said: “The death of Maya Chappell is not, sadly, an isolated incident. It is part of a devastating national pattern, which is of great concern. Across the country, 35% of child homicides—the murder of someone under 16, with their whole life ahead of them—are committed by a parent or step-parent.
“Those are the people a child is meant to trust the most. More than 50% of serious case reviews cite communication failures as a primary cause of child deaths. That represents a serious and persistent failure to protect children in their own homes.”
Daniel Holland
Reporter for the Local Democracy Reporter Service.
South West Durham News covering news across County Durham.
