As schools break up, we're urging parents and carers to think carefully about leaving children on their own
We received 5,737 calls and emails to our helpline over the last year from adults concerned about young children being left home alone unsupervised.1
Nearly a third of those calls and emails were made from July to September, when children are on their summer holidays.2 This was a 21 per cent increase in the number of contacts compared to last summer.3
There is no legal minimum age at which children can be left on their own, but parents and carers can be prosecuted for cruelty to a child if they are put at risk of suffering or injury.