The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) published ‘Neglect: learning from case reviews’ in December 2022. This report highlights that professionals face a big challenge in identifying and taking timely action on neglect and identifies common areas for learning and practice improvement for professionals.  

These themes are reflected in recent local safeguarding reviews. The key learning is highlighted below and all professionals are expected to be aware of this learning and apply them to their daily practice.

Understand the child’s lived experience. Professionals addressed the immediate presenting needs of a family without considering their impact on the child or understanding the risk to the child. The focus should always be on the best interests of the child rather than the immediate needs of a parent. Understanding the impact of neglect of a child has to come through hearing their voice and focussing on the lived experience through the eyes of the child. It is important to remember that neglect should be seen in the context of each child's individual experiences, and consideration should be given to whether the neglect began at the current age of the child, or if it has in fact been ongoing for several years. 

Some groups of children are more vulnerable to neglect than others e.g., newborn babies, premature babies, children with disabilities or complex health needs, and teenagers – especially where there are younger siblings.

Signs of neglect are not always recognised by professionals, with issues treated in isolation without understanding of or addressing the causes e.g., poor school attendance, missed health appointments or tooth decay. Tools designed to support a full understanding of neglect were not routinely used by all professionals.

There is an insufficient identification of adolescent neglect and the link with complex adolescent behaviour. Adolescents may find their home situation too difficult to bear and end up running away, further putting themselves at risk for even more dangerous situations, for example exploitation, sexual exploitation, and domestic abuse.

It is vital for professionals to understand whether a family’s issues are related to poverty or neglect. Neglect can occur in families living in poverty, but most parents who are experiencing poverty provide safe homes and high standards of parenting. Poverty itself is never an indicator of neglect. The question often used to illustrate this is if a new fridge were provided would the children receive better nutrition or improved emotional care?

Professionals did not always consider the complex needs and risk factors experienced by parents that would increase risk of neglect to the child e.g., parental or carer mental health problems, parental or carer domestic abuse / parental conflict, parent or carer experiencing financial problems, including housing problems.

The approach to achieving lasting change, requires clear thinking and understanding that the links between domestic abuse, substance misuse and poverty are complex and often inter-dependent. Addressing a single issue in isolation will not solve the underlying cause or other issues present.

All families come under pressure from time to time. Although many parents are able to provide loving care for their children during difficult periods, increased or continued stress can affect how well a parent can look after their child. Research shows that parents with a low income, or living in poorer neighbourhoods, are more likely to feel chronically stressed than other parents and parents who are facing complex problems such as domestic abuse or substance misuse can struggle to meet their children’s needs. If parents are feeling particularly isolated, this can make it harder for them to ask for help and increases the risk of child abuse or neglect.

Neglect is a cumulative process, not an isolated incident. Brandon et al (2008), in their review of Serious Cases warn of the ‘start again syndrome’, where practitioners, overwhelmed by the complexity of the family, put aside knowledge of the past and focus on the present, supporting parents to make a fresh start. Any new or re-assessment of a family must consider the family’s history in order to make sense of the present. it’s important that professionals build up a picture of a family’s situation over time. Professionals should compile and maintain a multi-agency chronology of key events. The full history of the family should be considered when new concerns arise, including patterns of previous episodes of neglect. This is also an issue where there is a change in professionals due to staff turnover – it is important to minimise any risk of start again syndrome.

Adult services working solely with parents or carers, especially fathers or male carers, didn’t always make the connection between their work and potential child safeguarding concerns. This meant important information about the risks children were exposed to wasn’t shared appropriately, or the work undertaken by services working with adults didn’t understand the impacts of their work for the child.

Practitioners should demonstrate professional curiosity and respectful uncertainty. Unclear or confusing information provided by a parent or carer should be cross-checked with other sources to ensure that it is accurate and properly understood.

Sometimes the behaviour of hostile or aggressive parents went unchallenged due to fear of confrontation. In other cases, parents would comply with just enough requests to allay concerns. Signs of neglect sometimes went unnoticed because families had no engagement with services, including universal services like education and health care.

Sometimes professionals who were routinely working with high levels of need had become desensitised to the potential risks posed to children. This meant that families didn’t always receive the support they needed.

Where families appear to be struggling to meet their child’s needs, they should be supported within a model of timely and holistic early help. Providing early help is more effective in promoting the welfare of children than reacting later.

Whilst neglected children will not inevitably become neglectful parents, research and practice experience clearly identifies the inter-familial nature of much neglect. Appropriate intervention can therefore contribute to the prevention of the cycle of inter-generational neglect.