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Although many countries in Europe have now banned the physical punishment of children, the British government claims a ban does not command widespread public support. A broad alliance of charities, however, is in favour of change. Clare Jerrom reports.

What do Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Israel, Latvia, Norway and Sweden have in common? They have all banned corporal punishment.

Large swathes of Europe are opting to ban physical punishment of children, with many realising the long-term effects that smacking can have. Germany is one of the latest, implementing a ban in July 2000 (see panel).

Christine Bergmann, the German minister for families, older people, women and young people, believes that people who have experienced physical punishment in their childhood may turn to violence themselves as an adult. "Corporal punishment and causing emotional harm have no place in bringing up children," she explains. "They are degrading for children and often set off a cycle of violence."

However, British health minister Jacqui Smith announced last year that there would be no ban in England and Wales.

"We do not believe that any further change to the law at this time would be appropriate - it would neither command widespread public support nor be capable of consistent enforcement," she said.

According to Smith, 70 per cent of the public who responded to the government consultation Protecting Children, Supporting Parents wanted the law to remain as it is. But nearly all the 300 organisations that responded were in favour of change.

A group of prominent public figures criticised the decision and sent an open letter to the health secretary Alan Milburn urging a rethink on policy.

Children Are Unbeatable, an alliance of more than 350 organisations, is campaigning for a change in the law. Spokesperson Rachel Hodgkin said: "How can the government go on defending a situation in which slapping another adult is a criminal offence, but if the victim is a baby or a toddler it's legal?"

The alliance, whose members include Save The Children, the NSPCC and Barnardo's, in January urged the government to launch a multi-million pound campaign, similar to the drink-driving campaign, to help parents achieve discipline without violence.

Last month, the NSPCC accused the government of being out of step with public opinion on the need for law reform. A Mori poll, commissioned by the charity, claimed that 58 per cent of people in England and Wales would support a law reform, if they could be sure that parents would not be prosecuted for "trivial smacks".

However, reforms elsewhere could mean that children across Britain have different levels of protection, particularly either side of the Scottish border. In September last year, the Scottish executive announced proposals to ban physical punishment of children up to three years old and a total ban of blows with implements.

They were included in the Criminal Justice white paper in December and a bill is expected in spring.

In Northern Ireland, the Office of Law Reform launched a consultation on the physical punishment of children, which ended in January, and reform proposals are expected shortly.

The issue has also been highlighted in Wales recently by Christine Chapman during a short debate in which she urged the National Assembly of Wales to "bring pressure to bear to end the physical punishment of children".

The UK law has been criticised by the European Court of Human Rights. In 1998 it found that the human rights of a young boy to "protection from inhuman or degrading punishment" had been breached by his stepfather, who had repeatedly caned him. The court found the UK government responsible because the law, which allows "reasonable chastisement", had been used by the stepfather. He was found not guilty in an English court. The government was ordered to pay £10,000 and the boy's legal costs.

The government is required to accept European Court judgements and agreed that the law should be changed to protect children, but no amendments have yet been made.

Joint chairperson of parliament's all-party group on children, Hilton Dawson, recently visited Smith, wanting "an end to the current state of law that dates back to Victorian times and allows a loophole in which child abuse can remain".

A simple change in the law would assist child protection and child protection workers, and would help to underpin cultural changes, he said.

Director of the NSPCC Mary Marsh said: "Our government should be a reforming voice in Europe to modernise laws to protect children equally, instead of clinging on to ideas of treating children as second-class people."

Children want smacking banned too. A Save the Children report in Scotland found that 94 per cent of children said there were ways parents could discipline children without resorting to physical punishment.

Phil Taverner (see panel) was told by a young girl: "It's not fair - grown ups are more naughty than children but nobody can smack them. And anyway, we're just learning about life. Being smacked doesn't help us learn right from wrong - it just makes us more rebellious."

European bans in practice

Phil Taverner, area children's services manager at NSPCC Southampton, was the 2001 winner of the Isabel Schwarz Travel Fellowship award and used the funding to visit Germany and Austria, to learn how both countries implemented their bans.

Travelling to Germany on the Eurostar, Taverner watched a small French boy receive a "resounding slap" on the legs. "Like a true coward, I said nothing. But I remember thinking that within a couple of hours I would be in a country where that sort of behaviour would simply not be accepted any more, and experiencing a gut feeling of heading for some kind of sanctuary from this sort of routine violence," he said.

In Germany, Taverner visited a number of children's organisations as well as meeting the person who drafted the country's corporal punishment law to learn about the careful wording, which covers hitting, pushing, pulling hair and tying a child up.

The law was introduced in July 2000 and opinion polls showed that the majority of parents opposed it, with concerns that they would be criminalised. But it was written into Civil Law to overcome prosecution fears and a national campaign was run with the message "Help instead of punishment".

It aims to raise awareness of children's right to be protected in the same way as adults, change public attitudes to make violence towards children unacceptable and reduce child abuse by giving professionals more confidence.

A simultaneous change in the law meant that local authorities had to promote violence-free ways in which families could raise children.

Taverner believes it is too early to evaluate the ban, but parents' attitudes are starting to change and no one has been prosecuted under the new law. But Germany is a relatively child-focused country, and encourages child participation in the community.

Austria implemented a ban in 1989 and Taverner spoke to Dr Gabrielle Hausmann from childrens' organisation Kinderschutzzentrum. She claimed that it would take a generation to see results, but that professionals gained huge confidence from having clear legislation. She suggested that younger parents and people in the city were more likely to oppose smacking, whereas in the country old views die hard.

Taverner was also impressed by the creative methods of promoting positive parenting, such as monthly magazines offering advice on different stages in a child's life and post cards based on the human rights articles, written in child-friendly language. He would like to see these introduced in Britain.

"What children learn from being smacked is that it is okay to use force or violence to change someone else's behaviour, combined with a fear that if they are caught doing something they will be hurt - usually by the person they love most of all," Taverner argues.

"The law has to catch up with the majority of public opinion in order to provide children with legal safeguards," he concludes.