Young siblings need to be protected from abuse

I am hugely concerned about the increase in requests from families for help in stopping their sibling child being hurt by their disabled brother or sister – in most cases the disabled child has autism and violent behaviour, which is targeted at one of the siblings.  My main concern is that when these parents have asked their social worker or other professional for help to stop the abuse, their request has not been taken seriously as a safeguarding concern.  Some parents have been told that because the child is disabled then nothing can be done, or that because it doesn't happen at school that it is not a significant problem. This is unacceptable and is an issue that Sibs has raised with the NSPCC.  There is a taboo around talking about abuse of siblings by their disabled brothers and sisters however for some siblings this is a very real everyday experience.  Parents who say a sibling child is being abused need to be listened to and for the abuse to be treated by professionals as a safeguarding issue.