August 26th, 2009 by Shyla

The law in the UK about how old a child can be before they can be left on their own is very vague. There is no specific law that says a particular age. The law says that a parent can be prosecuted for wilful neglect if a child is left alone, unsupervised in a way that may cause unnecessary injury or suffering to their health.

It may be that a family has no local support or cannot find or afford childcare. They may not have relatives nearby who could help. As a community it would be good if more people offered to help and reached out to families rather than watching and waiting for an opportunity to report child abuse.
At no time should a baby every be left alone. Even for a short time this can be deadly and is definitely neglect. A baby or a child under the age of 9 who is seen to be left alone should be reported to the authorities immediately. The police will then visit the home and ensure that the child is safe.

The NSPCC recommends that children under the age of 13 should not be left unsupervised and that children under 16 should not be left alone over night. Of course, your 11 year old may be considerably more mature than someone else’s 14 year old so some common sense has to be used on the part of parents.