Child neglect
Neglect is the most common form of child abuse according to the Statistics on child neglect | NSPCC and:
- leads to almost half of child protection plans
- features in 75% of serious case reviews
High-profile child deaths show that it is extremely difficult for professionals with safeguarding responsibilities to:
- identify indicators of neglect
- assess whether their observations are serious enough for them to act
- decide on the most appropriate course of action.
Outside the home, children spend most of their time in school. As part of multi-agency working, teachers and schools can do a lot to help identify neglect.
Neglect guidance for schools
These tools can help you to identify neglect:
Neglect toolkit [3.3 MB] [pdf]
Neglect matrix [848.8 KB] [pdf]
Anti-poverty practice tools
Poverty is having an increasing impact on many families, ultimately affecting how children’s basic needs are being met. When using the Neglect Toolkit it is important to have a good understanding of the Anti-Poverty Practice Framework [4.4 MB] [pdf] and Anti-Poverty Practice Tool [136.2 KB] [pdf], too, ensuring that our assessments and plans are poverty-informed, and supports are provided to maximise family income and link them into community networks. We need to do as much as possible to poverty-proof our interventions (avoiding meetings over lunch time, reducing amount of travelling required to attend meetings etc).
Related information
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