Press

Everything you need to report on Speak For Them, in one place. Every fact on this page is verified against primary sources, and the sources are linked.

The campaign

Speak For Them is a child safeguarding reform campaign in memory of Preston Davey, carried with his family beside us. We go through the legislation line by line, find where it fails children, and put those findings directly in front of Members of Parliament.

Preston

Preston Davey was thirteen months old. His grandmother fought to keep him with her, but she was fighting breast cancer, and social services ruled her too unwell to take him. The state placed him with two men who sexually abused and tortured him. One murdered him. The other allowed him to die. Four months in their care. More than forty internal and external injuries. The warning signs were seen, and the authorities did not act. Both men are in prison.

The law that is passed but not in force

Section 118 of the Crime and Policing Act 2026, known as Della’s Law, says a registered sex offender must tell the police at least seven days before using a new name. Section 120 requires notification before a registered sex offender enters specified premises where children are present. Parliament passed both in April 2026. Neither has been switched on.

A law that exists on paper protects no one.

Source: Crime and Policing Act 2026, legislation.gov.uk

Preston’s name in Parliament

On 22 June 2026, Preston’s murder was raised on the floor of the House of Commons by Helen Hayes MP, Chair of the Education Committee, and by Suella Braverman MP, and from the Government front bench by the Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, who pledged to do “everything within our power” to prevent another child facing the same fate.

Sources: watch on Parliament’s official record · read the exchange in Hansard

The Children’s Commissioner

On 3 September 2026, the Children’s Commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza, called Preston’s case “a clear failure of the safeguarding system” and backed a Single Unique Identifier for every child. It is what our One Record ask calls for, and we are pressing for that record to follow the child across all four UK nations.

What we are demanding

• Switch on Della’s Law and section 120 of the Crime and Policing Act 2026.
• Link every name an offender uses, permanently, across police, DBS, passport, DVLA, prison and court records, including in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
• Pass the Eleven Hour Amendment: reduce the 12-hour notification threshold and make it cumulative.
• Put Sarah’s Law on a statutory footing, using the section 97 power the Government already holds.
• A national, non-means-tested allowance for kinship carers.
• One safeguarding record for every child with an active concern, following the child across all four UK nations.
• Unshaken: preparation for coping with crying before a baby is placed.

Every ask, with its evidence, is set out in the Write to your MP letter. Every result so far is dated on our homepage and on the campaign map.

Photographs

These photographs are shown for reference only. Permission to publish is not given by this page. For photographs and permission, email contact@speakforthem.org.uk.