Peter Wanless, chief executive of the child protection charity NSPCC, has said people who cover up child sex abuse should be prosecuted, and there should be a duty on institutions like hospitals, children's homes and boarding schools to report abuse. He said, ‘If someone consciously knows that there is a crime committed against a child, and does nothing about it because they put the reputation of the organisation above the safety of that child, that should be a criminal offence.’ Until now the charity has opposed all forms of so-called mandatory reporting, but Mr Wanless said the NSPCC would be open to discussions about what form a new law should take. He is currently heading an inquiry about whether the Home Office failed to act on allegations of child sex abuse handed over in the 1980s by former Tory MP Geoffrey Dickens. Another independent inquiry, looking at historical sexual abuse and institutions' protection of children, will be led by retired senior judge Elizabeth Butler-Sloss.

The mother of a seven-year-old girl with Down’s Syndrome, who hit the headlines for appearing in Sainsbury’s clothing adverts, has said there had been an ‘assumption’ she would abort her daughter. Hayley Goleniowska, 43, and her husband Bob, 59, told the Daily Telegraph they have no limits on their expectations for their daughter Natalia (Natty), who swims, rides horses and is in mainstream school. Hayley said there is a ‘conditioning to fear Down’s syndrome’ and an ‘assumption’ that if the baby tests positive for the condition, you will ‘automatically’ have an abortion. But, she said, ‘we knew who she was - our daughter, not a set of symptoms or predictions for the future’. Hayley has started a blog offering advice and support for parents of children with Down’s Syndrome, which gets 30,000 hits a month. She said, ‘when a family or a mum tells us ‘Your blog has thrown me a lifeline; now I can see what the future could hold’, then we know we’re doing the right thing’.