When is it safe to leave a child alone?
Carolyn Hamilton, the Director of the Children's Legal Centre - an independent national charity concerned with law and policy affecting children and young people has the following advice for parents.
Parents often wonder when it is safe to leave a child unsupervised at home. The law does not specify an age when a child can be left at home alone. However, parents commit an offence if leaving the child at home alone puts him or her at risk.
The NSPCC advise that most children under the age of 13 should not be left at home alone. Even a short period of time on their own can be distressing and lonely for a child, most children under 13 years of age would not be able to cope with an emergency.
There is no law that says for how long a child can be left at home alone, but it is an offence if they are put at risk.
For example, a parent who leaves a 12-year-old alone at home to take a short trip to the local shops would not be committing an offence, but leaving a 14-year-old at home alone for a week would be an offence.
A parent should be able to judge their child's level of maturity and understanding and decide whether the child would be able to cope at home alone.
To visit the Children's Legal centre website, click here.
