Tonight we report about two initiatives to improve children's lives. The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children has launched its Full Stop crusade, with royal backing.

This ambitious campaign aims to bring child cruelty to an end within 20 years.

Meanwhile the pioneering work of York-based charity PACT in communicating with disabled youngsters has achieved Government recognition.

Both charities want us to listen to children more. Often, we try to ignore the terrible crime of child abuse, keeping it behind closed doors.

Often, we look at the disability and not the child, forgetting that children deserve the basic right to speak for themselves.

Both the NSPCC and PACT deserve our thanks for putting the welfare of these children first.

see NEWS 'Disabled children to gain from York study'

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