Response to neglect ‘slow and inadequate’ due to high barriers and lack of services, NSPCC finds

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The NSPCC has found that local authorities’ response to child neglect is ‘slow and inadequate’ due to high barriers to intervention and a lack of services.

A third of social workers surveyed by the charity said they had come under pressure from managers or colleagues to stop or delay intervention in cases of neglect. In contrast, professionals from partner organisations were critical of the way youth services responded to the problem.

Neglect is defined by the government as “the persistent failure to meet a child’s basic needs, both physical and psychological, which is likely to result in serious harm to the child’s health or development” (source: Working together to protect children).

Call for national strategy to tackle ‘normalisation’ of neglect

In a report published last week, the NSPCC warned that the “normalisation” of neglect, amid high poverty rates and long-term cuts to preventative services, is leading to children being left in harmful situations for too long.

However, it was said that neither the Independent Inquiry into Children’s Social Care (the “Care Inquiry”), which reported in 2022, nor the previous government’s response to it, Stable houses, built on love strategy, has adequately addressed the problem.

The charity, which surveyed 100 social workers and 600 teachers, police officers and health professionals for its report, urged the government to develop a national strategy to tackle neglect and improve guidance for professionals to tackle the problem, in line with ministers’ plans to tackle child poverty.

Most common category of abuse

Neglect is the most common first category of abuse recorded in child protection plans in England. In March 2023, neglect accounted for just under half (49.3%) of cases.

Since 2019, the number of registered cases of neglect has remained the same, as has the number of cases of emotional abuse. During that period, the registered cases of physical abuse, sexual abuse and multiple abuse have decreased.

The NSPCC found that 82% of social workers – and 54% of all professionals surveyed – had seen an increase in the level of neglect during their working lives. Of those who had seen an increase, 90% said it was due to increases in the cost of living and poverty, while 76% cited cuts to community support for parents.

The latter reflects the 46% decline in council spending on early intervention services from 2010-2011 to 2021-2022, as identified in analysis by the NSPCC and other children’s charities (source: Franklin J et al, 2023).

However, professionals who took part in online focus groups for the NSPCC research told the charity that neglect often does not meet the threshold for intervention.

Social workers ‘encouraged to delay action’ against neglect

A third of social workers surveyed said that a colleague or manager had encouraged them to delay or stop taking action against neglect. 21% said this was the case for other forms of abuse.

52% of teachers surveyed indicated that childcare facilities are generally slow to respond to cases of neglect.

The NSPCC linked this to the fact that the child protection system is ‘severely skewed’ towards identifying individual incidents that cross the threshold of a child suffering or likely to suffer significant harm.

“Unlike other forms of abuse, neglect rarely manifests as a crisis requiring immediate action,” the report said. “This makes it challenging to identify, as practitioners must consider the severity, frequency, developmental time, and duration of neglectful behavior to determine whether it meets the threshold for intervention.”

Lack of services to address neglect

Even in places where neglect was found, care providers reported a lack of services to support families.

Only 19% of police officers said they felt appropriate measures had been taken to provide the child and family with the support they needed to address neglect, and 21% said this support had never been provided. More broadly, 83% of all professionals surveyed said there were not enough services in their area to provide targeted support to children and families in these cases.

Education and health professionals pointed to a lack of resources and expertise to address neglect in early care settings. Teachers in particular pointed to the challenge for families to access services based on parental consent.

At the same time, social workers pointed out the lack of specialist interventions for children experiencing neglect, which is in contrast to the practice regarding child exploitation.

Social care reform strategy ‘does not address neglect’

The NSPCC said the previous government had failed to adequately address the neglect through its Stable houses, built on love strategy.

That document referred to neglect only four times – all in the context of child abuse in general – although it addressed specific forms of abuse and exploitation in a similar way.

It was argued that the strategy’s key reform – creating multidisciplinary family support teams, brought together from targeted early help and services for children in need, to improve the timeliness and effectiveness of family support – “could transform the response to neglect”.

The charity said the new Labour government must ensure progressive local authorities respond to neglect early as part of their tests of family benefits reform.

The emphasis here should be on engaging and caring for families where neglect is occurring, encouraging them to accept help.

Call for Neglect Strategy

More broadly, the NSPCC called on the government to develop a national neglect strategy, to share the latest best practice, knowledge and evidence on neglect, its relationship with poverty, its long-term impact and what works in tackling it, both through universal and specialist services, and to improve training for relevant professionals.

In addition, the government should explore the possibility of changing the definition of neglect. Working together to protect children (see above), including possibly removing the reference to the damage as being ‘ongoing’.

“No child should be subjected to abuse until they are considered ‘persistent’ enough for intervention,” the charity said. “The opportunity for early intervention is then missed, with devastating consequences for the child, and there is a need for more expensive late-stage
intervention.”

The NSPCC pointed out that definitions of neglect in Wales and Northern Ireland made no reference to persistence. In Scotland it was added that although the definition refers to persistence, it emphasises that single instances of neglect can cause significant harm.