As children have broken up from school for their six-week holiday, parents have been issued advice about leaving kids home alone during the summer.
Leading children's charity, NSPCC, made the appeal after they revealed a third of their calls and emails concerned children being left unsupervised over the summer months from July to September.
The reports included children being left alone overnight, young children left to feed themselves and using kitchen equipment, as well as siblings fighting over iPads and games.
Although Louise Exton, NSPCC helpline manager, said there is "no one size fits all" solution to childcare, the NSPCC advise the following:
- Babies, toddlers and very young children should never be left alone.
- They added that children under the age of 12 should not be left at home alone for a long period of time.
- And that children under the age of 16 should not be left alone overnight.
Specialist practitioners managing the charity's helpline have received 5,737 calls and emails from across the UK in 2018/19 from adults worried about youngsters being left home alone.
One concerned relative told the helpline that their teenage grandson was left at home alone all day, and without friends in a new town and had been left to play on his computer console all day.
"The last time I saw him he looked really unhappy," the caller added.
What is the legal minimum age you can leave a child home alone?
There is no minimum age by law at which children can be left on their own.
However parents and carers can be prosecuted for cruelty to a child, which includes; neglect, abandonment and failure to protect, if children are put at risk of suffering or injury.
Louise Exton, continued: "Childcare is the biggest cost for families after housing, which could explain why we see a spike in calls to our helpline during these months.
"Leaving your child home alone can be a difficult decision as children mature at different ages - there is no 'one size fits all' answer.
"Parents are best placed to know what is right for their child so it's vital there is flexibility for them to decide, but we would urge them to think carefully and use their common sense when deciding if their child could cope."
Last year the NSPCC helpline was contacted on average 55 times a day by adults worried about child neglect.
Latest figures for Greater Manchester (2017/18) show Manchester council had 189 agency referrals following reports of neglect. Tameside was the second highest, with 110, followed by Wigan, where the figure was 103. The lowest was Trafford, with 34.
