In switzerland you see children who look around 7 years old taking the bus and going to school by themselves in England it would probably be considered child neglect.
it seems something went wrong with society in this country
When I was living in London there were tons of kids from that kind of age upwards making their own way to school - there was a bus stop right across from where I lived you'd see dozens of them getting on in the morning unattended.
Dunno about around here as I live a bit out of the way of the regular school runs.
There is a huge difference though between that and a toddler aged child left alone in a building.