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Increasing demands on teachers and the pressures of the curriculum can mean that children who are suffering abuse may feel there is no one at their school they can confide in, says Peter Beresford.

Like it or not, we do not live in a cosy immobile world of mutual aid and self-help, where copywriters' bright ideas such as "ending child poverty" and "full stop to child cruelty" might have some meaning. Instead, we are subject to an increasingly rapacious economy, where people work ever longer hours and where profits are divided more and more unequally.

In a multi ethnic inner city area such as the one where I live, two types of institutions have played a crucial role in maintaining some level of local social infrastructure: schools and religious establishments - churches, temples, missions and mosques. The two have come closer together as government has encouraged the expansion of "faith-based" schools.

But there's another development likely to have more far-reaching effects on the role of schools in safeguarding children from abuse and protecting their rights - fundamental changes in education philosophy and practice. We must understand these changes to make proper sense of the part education social workers may play in supporting children and preventing abuse.

I asked our 10-year-old daughter, Ruth, who is in primary school year five, whom she thought she could talk to if she felt she was being abused at home.

"No one close to the family. My teacher - she can be understanding. None of the others, except the nursery teacher and maybe the school secretary."

She didn't have a sense of how interested they would be. She wouldn't want to tell a man. The issue hadn't been talked about. "We had a good day about citizenship, but it was all about vandalism, being safe from water, fire, trains, drugs and strangers." For Ruth, everything seemed to hang on having someone she felt she could trust and with whom she had a relationship - and these seemed to be in short supply at school.

Talking to one of the growing numbers of teachers leaving education helps explain why. "Teachers don't have enough time to spend with children - it's all become formalised," said one ex-teacher. "For key stage two - age 7-11 - it's a much quicker pace now. There's more paperwork.

"The structured curriculum means there's less time for the child to relate to the teacher. The emphasis is on skills and duties rather than children developing themselves and working out what's best for them and feeling safe at school."

She highlighted the value of educational social workers (ESWs). "The school had an ESW who came in one day a week. She was very approachable. Issues could be picked up - she could help take the burden. There was good interaction between health, social services and the school."

The picture wasn't so straightforward for Ruth though. "I wouldn't know them (the ESWs). I'd prefer someone who's nothing to do with social work. You know, things go round. I'd prefer a teacher. I'd want to be really cautious."

Add to this the government's increasing concern with truancy and the picture gets even more complicated. Already by the late 1990s, teachers were having to spend time tallying children's lateness, "authorised" and "non-authorised" absences by the week, month and year, and sending letters home to parents. Now the first mother has been imprisoned for not sending her children to school, how can we ensure that policy concerns with control don't negate policy commitments to support and safety? How far will the ESW be able to be there single-mindedly for the child?

There's a far bigger question here too. Do we see safeguarding children from abuse as a responsibility of education social workers or of our school system more broadly? If it's the latter, there are fundamental implications for education policy. It means shifting from preoccupation with paper performance indicator scores to really putting children at the centre of schooling. This demands new priorities, a new emphasis on relationships between teachers and pupils and a reaffirmation of the support role of the ESW.

Peter Beresford is professor of social policy, Brunel University, and is active in the psychiatric system survivor movement.