Your Princess MargaretRoyal Highness, My Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen:
First, may we welcome Her Royal Highness, Princess Margaret, this evening—a very warm welcome—to this our NSPCC Reception, to which she is far from being a stranger, for which she has done so much and for which we are very grateful (applause).
Second, may I welcome you to the refurbished—partially refurbished—No. 10. It is a great pleasure to have you here, particularly for this occasion.
Many of you come here quite frequently when we have very good causes. Some of you have already been here in connection with the work of the NSPCC. You came here when we had the centenary, when we recalled that over a hundred years ago the NSPCC was formed in very different days, when children who needed help had no-one to turn to and this great organisation was founded. It was hoped at that time that the time would come when the NSPCC would not be needed. [end p1]
That hope was not fulfilled, even in times of very considerable prosperity because we are not up against the problems of poverty—we are up against something much more deep-seated: we are up against the problems of human nature and so I have to report to you that each year there are something like 150 to 200 children who die because of cruelty or neglect; that last year, there were some 25,000 calls upon the NSPCC for their help to children who had been cruelly treated or neglected; and that since the NSPCC was born, some nine million children have required the help of this great association.
I remember it very well as a child, when we knew the NSPCC inspector. We knew who he was. He was a great human, marvellous person who could always be called in to understand what the problems are.
We know from the Cleveland case that the problems are still as important—as difficult—as they were over a hundred years ago. To many, it was a revelation—it was indeed to me—because I think so much that has gone on behind closed doors is now being revealed.
It is partly with the experience and work of the NSPCC in mind over the last 104/105 years and partly with the revelations of the Cleveland Report, that we asked you to come here this evening. [end p2]
Many of you have been here many times before. You have been here to give to the St. John 's Ambulance, you have been here to give to John Grooms, you have been here to give to the disabled, you have been here to give to sports, you have been here to give to the arts and many of you have been here before to give to children. Some of you have been here within the last year because you have learned to tap the sympathies, the goodwill, the generosity of your work-force and they have been here to give us cheques of money which they have raised and it has given them a new interest, a new sense of satisfaction, a feeling that you are doing something really worthwhile as they have collected money for children whom they would wish to help but do not know about themselves and therefore they give to the NSPCC so that they may help.
I want to assure you that money that comes to the NSPCC gets to the children. The reason I can say that is that quite early in my political career I was able to help, because I was on the Executive of the NSPCC and also a Member of Parliament who had been a Minister but temporarily lost that—well, it was not my fault, but you know those things happen! (laughter)—so I thought: “Well now, I can become an agitator!” but the thing I agitated for was a headquarters grant for the NSPCC and the point of that was so that if Government looked after the immediate headquarters costs, then everything that was given went to the children. So that is in fact what now happens. [end p3]
We also know from the Cleveland Report how very difficult things are and I remember, when I was Education Secretary, going sometimes to the teacher training colleges and putting to these young people who were training as teachers this question:
“Supposing you have a child coming to school, used to be quite good, used to work well. All of a sudden the child does not work well, is listless, has something on its mind. Then on a Friday afternoon, you will find that child does not want to go home and comes and clings to you. What do you do?”
I put that question to trainee teachers. What do you do? You must know. All your instincts must tell you something is wrong. What do you do? They said: “We do not know!” I said: “Well, aren't you taught?” “No!” I said: “Well, you had better be taught because I can tell you there will be parts of Britain in which you will find this problem happening. You had better be taught!” [end p4]
Now what had they better be taught? They had better be taught what the law is; when they can call the police in. What they do: do they go back with that child home, knowing full well when they turn up at the home the parents may take it out on the child? What do you do? Do you write it down on a dossier? Do you call in the social worker? What does the social worker do?
I pose the questions to you which I posed to them, because I knew by this time that that was what they would quite often meet at the end of a day, so I know they need training. They do need training on the law; they do need training on previous cases. They do need training because in their work they will find differing views. You saw that in the Cleveland case. The police surgeon took a different view from the other surgeon; some of the social services took a different view.
If we are to have people trained, they must have the confidence by virtue of a combination of their training and experience—the confidence that they are right and the confidence to argue out their case with representatives from other agencies, whether the local authority, the police, the surgeons, to say: “Look! I can only tell you that in all my experience this child needs help and we have got to be certain that we do not take ‘No;’ from the father or mother—we insist that the child is brought to us and we can help!” Again, not easy because the child in difficulty needs help, but the innocent parent must not be libelled. [end p5]
All of this means that we have to set up a training college and the NSPCC are the people to do it. They did not come to the problem in a theoretical way. They came to the problem because it was there. They came to the problem with the deepest of humanity, the deepest of experience and they have learned amidst all the artificial sophisticated questions which can be put to you to stop you from going in to help, to persist.
And so our task today is not only to keep the NSPCC going. When I first asked you for money, we needed about £8 million a year to run it. I think this year our budget is about £25 million and in addition to that we have to find £5 million for a college for training—training young people who have all of the deep sympathy, the experience, the determination, training them so they will know when to go in and not take ‘No’ for an answer; training them so that they can stand up to other people who might say: “Oh no, no! Do not persist in this!” —and they will persist because in our times the problems are not the problems of poverty, not the problems of bad housing, bad education or bad health—they are the fundamental problems of the difficulties, the inherent problems of human nature and there is not a single one of us here or a single one of the people who work for you who would not go in and say: “You must get this child out! You must help!” They cannot do it and so we have to train the people who can. [end p6]
That is why you have come; that is why we welcome you to No. 10, because we know that we need your help in order to give those children what you and I so often took for granted. It used to be called “The League of Pity” in my day. It is more than pity now—it is constructive help to try to deal with this great problem which disfigures our society.
Thank you very much for coming. I have to tell you the speeches are not through yet. Sir Mark WeinbergMark will take the soap-box now but please, please, may we thank you for coming; may we thank you for giving; may we urge those of you who have not yet done so, to take the message to your ordinary folk who are working in factories as well as those of you who have come here—factories, offices, hotels, commerce—because the spirit of this country is as they get extra prosperity so they will get extra generosity and please, NSPCC is one of those to whom they should give it.
Thank you! (applause).