Durham County Council urging other local authorities to back Maya's Law
The two year-old was killed back in 2022 by her mum's partner
Durham County Council's urging other local authorities to throw their support behind Maya's Law.
Two year-old Maya Chappell was killed by her mum's partner in 2022 in County Durham.
Earlier this summer, the toddler's family started a campaign for better safeguarding for at-risk children.
Councillor Cathy Hunt, portfolio holder for children and young people's services at Durham County Council, said: "Just like everyone else it was heartbreaking, sad, and shocking that this can happen to little people. The family are just amazing and what they're doing, their strength and courage to do this, is just phenomenal.
"I'm very grateful to Gemma and the family for the work that they've done. I'm very grateful that they are making us all stop and think about children safety in every walk of life. It's just amazing that from something so tragic, something really good could come from it.
"Any extra tools that we've got to protect children in any way, shape, or form is a good thing and it can only be a good thing in raising awareness. It's everyone's responsibility to look out for kids and it's is just the right thing to do anyway.
"I think safeguarding children anywhere in any part of the country is massively important but obviously we've got a bigger interest in County Durham because they're our kids. We've all got that duty to look after our children and they're the most vulnerable people in society and it's up to us to look out for them.
"The hope is that we have some more stringent safeguarding measures in place, raising the profile, making sure everyone's on board and it's not just about authorities and the police and everyone else, it's about in society that if we see something that we find that we're not comfortable with, then we should be reporting it and it should be getting taken seriously.
"We in County Durham are writing to Government to say that it should be in law. We'd like all the other councils to get behind this and support it, so that the whole country and the whole world, people can see in this country we take children's safety very, very seriously."
They also have a petition which has over 8,000 signatures.