article_snippet: Teachers, social workers and councillors who turn a blind eye to child sex abuse will face up to five years in jail under plans for a new criminal offence.
article_snippet: Government has decided to act following an official report that found at least 1,400 children were subjected to appalling sexual abuse in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013.
article_snippet: There have been separate allegations of decades of paedophile activity by powerful individuals in churches, hospitals, schools, political parties and the BBC.
article_snippet: New measures will be unveiled at a summit in Downing Street attended by victims and survivors’ groups, police chiefs, council leaders, health and social care professionals, and child protection experts.
article_snippet: Ministers plan to introduce a new criminal offence of ‘wilful neglect’ of children suffering abuse, and apply a new criminal offence of ‘wilful neglect’ of children suffering abuse to social workers, teachers and elected council members.
article_snippet: A similar offence has recently been introduced in the health service and is punishable by up to five years in jail or an unlimited fine, and unlimited fines for organisations.
article_snippet: As well as new sanctions for public sector workers who fail to protect children, the Government will announce a new national helpline for professionals to blow the whistle on bad practice.
article_snippet: Child sex abuse is also to be prioritised as a ‘national threat’ by police and crime commissioners and chief constables.
article_snippet: The Prime Minister will say: ‘We have all been appalled at the abuse suffered by so many young girls in Rotherham and elsewhere across the country.
article_snippet: Shaun Right, the former  Police and Crime Commissioner of South Yorkshire, resigned over the scandal . '
article_snippet: Today, I am sending an unequivocal message that professionals who fail to protect children will be held properly accountable and council bosses who preside over such catastrophic failure will not see rewards for such catastrophic failure.
article_snippet: It is about making sure that the professionals we charge with protecting we children – the council staff, police officer and social workers – do the jobs the professionals we charge with protecting our children – the council staff, police officer and social workers – are paid to do.
article_snippet: The new offence of wilful neglect will apply when there has been a failure to act when a court concludes that a ‘moral duty’ to do so exists.
article_snippet: It is expected to sit alongside a separate ‘mandatory reporting’ law, which would apply in schools, hospitals, churches, or sports clubs operated by a national body.
article_snippet: Similar laws already exist in Northern Ireland, Australia, the United States and Denmark which impose a legal duty on professionals such as teachers, social workers, police and doctors to report suspicions of abuse or face legal consequences.
highlights_snippet: Government decided to act following revelations of Rotherham scandal .
  