Teachers could face disciplinary action if they fail to report suspicions that a child is being abused.

The law is being tightened to help protect vulnerable children after a campaign by the former education secretary Gillian Shephard.

Ministers have amended the Education Bill, which is passing through the House of Lords, to make the changes.

Teachers already have guidelines which say they have a responsibility to report signs of abuse but these are now to be changed to legal requirements.

Manslaughter

Gillian Shephard took up the campaign after teachers at a Norfolk primary school did not report signs of abuse on a six-year-old girl who was eventually killed by her stepmother.

Tracey Wright, 31, was jailed for 15 years for the manslaughter of her stepdaughter Lauren Wright by Norwich Crown Court.

Lauren's father Craig Wright was also convicted of manslaughter and wilful neglect and was given a lesser sentence.

Guidelines to protect vulnerable children obviously needed to have the force of law

Gillian Shephard MP

The court heard the child had suffered months of abuse at the hands of Tracey Wright and had died after being hit so hard in the stomach that her digestive system collapsed.

There were more than 60 bruises and marks on her body and in the year before she died, she was said to have lost a lot of weight.

Norfolk social services and the local health authority were both heavily criticised after her death for not recognising signs of abuse.

Neighbours had warned social services that Lauren was being abused seven weeks before she died but no action was taken.

She had been known to social services from a young age.

Bruises

Local MP Gillian Shephard says teachers could also have done something to help.

"Lauren attended the William Marshall Primary School at Welney for the last 16 months of her life," said Mrs Shephard.

"During that time she lost four stones and frequently appeared at school with bruises.

"The head and teachers did not apparently report these symptoms to the education welfare service as local authority guidelines required them to.

"The director of education told me that he was unable to take any disciplinary action against the teachers as the guidelines did not have any statutory force.

Enforcement

"I decided then to try to get the law changed. Guidelines to protect vulnerable children obviously needed to have the force of law.

"Their disregard should result in disciplinary action against those concerned."

Norfolk County Council's director of education, Bryan Slater, said he welcomed the change in the law.

"I agree with Mrs Shephard that we could give the guidelines more force by making their observance a statutory responsibility in the same way that schools already have a statutory responsibility to deliver a national curriculum," he said.

Union reaction mixed

Eamonn O'Kane, general secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers warned that changes in the law could mean schools and teachers being sued.

He said teachers could already be disciplined under 1995 Department for Education guidance on what to do about abuse, so no change in the law was necessary.

He said: "We believe it is a mistake to write into legislation a duty which has arisen from an admittedly tragic case.

"No-one is arguing about that and I'm not defending the school but hard cases make bad law.

"It could be a further rod for the back of schools."

The National Union of Teachers said it was not opposed to the law being changed to incorporate the guidance, providing schools were given the necessary resources.

General secretary Doug McAvoy said: "We would want to be sure that appropriate funding for training for teachers to be able to live up to this demand was available."