Brigid Daniel
Professor of Social Work
University of Stirling
with thanks also to:
Julie Taylor, Professor of Family Health , University of Dundee, and Head of
Strategy and Development: Abuse in High Risk Families, NSPCC
Cheryl Burgess, Research Fellow, University of Stirling
Jane Scott, Independent researcher and Scottish Protection Hub
We knew all this
years ago!
‘From the late 19th century up to the 1970s, child
neglect dominated in definitions of maltreatment.
Annually, up to 90% of cases were defined as
neglect’ (p.29).
 Rise in attention to physical and sexual abuse.
 Development of a forensic approach.
 Shift from ‘inspection’ of homes by NSPCC officers.
 Rise in local authority professional social workers
working ‘in partnership ‘with families.
 Rise in radical social work, highlighting the impact of
structural factors.
(Ferguson, 2011)
This is an unhappy group of children,
presenting the least positive and most
negative affect of all groups… These same
children were also the most dependent
and demonstrated the lowest ego control
in the preschool and in general did not
have the skills necessary to cope with the
various situations.
(Egeland, Sroufe &
Erickson, 1983, p.469)
Child maltreatment as a
social problem: the
neglect of neglect.
(Wolock &
Horowitz, 1984)
SCRI: Research Questions
 What is known about the ways in which children and
families directly and indirectly signal their need for
help?
 To what extent are practitioners equipped to
recognise and respond to the indications that a child’s
needs are likely to be, or are being neglected,
whatever the cause?
 Does the evidence suggest that professional response
could be swifter?
Method
 Empirical studies, published 1995 and
2005.
 Filtered for quality and relevance.
 63 papers, published in English, from
across the world.
Annual Review of Child Neglect
with Action for Children
1. Do we know how many children are currently
experiencing neglect in the UK?
2. How good are we at recognising children who
are at risk of, or are experiencing neglect?
3. How well are we helping children at risk of, or
currently experiencing neglect?
 During 2011 we collected all the UK statistics
about children already ‘officially’ labelled as
neglected as well as those in need and affected by
parental substance misuse, mental health issues
and domestic abuse,
 analysed policy documents,
 surveyed a total of 47 authorities (or Boards in NI)
across the UK,
 carried out 6 focus groups across the UK and
 obtained online poll results from 2,062 adults in
the general public and 2,174 professionals
(including social workers, police, health
professionals and teachers).
Do we know how many children are
currently experiencing neglect in the UK?
 It is relatively easy to find out about the tip of the
iceberg  in March 2010 the most common reason for children
being made subject to a child protection plans was
neglect: 44% in England and Scotland, in NI it was
29% with a further 21% where neglect was a
contributing issue and in Wales 43% and a further 6%
(NSPCC, 2011).
 Less than half of the areas surveyed could give us
figures about the rest of the iceberg.
Neglect is the persistent failure to meet a child’s basic physical
and/or psychological needs, likely to result in the serious
impairment of the child’s health or development. Neglect may
occur during pregnancy as a result of maternal substance
abuse. Once a child is born, neglect may involve a parent or
carer failing to:
 provide adequate food, clothing and shelter (including
exclusion from home or abandonment);
 protect a child from physical and emotional harm or
danger;
 ensure adequate supervision (including the use of
inadequate care-givers); or
 ensure access to appropriate medical care or treatment.
It may also include neglect of, or unresponsiveness to, a child’s
basic emotional needs.
(HM Government 2010)
There have been
children I
worry about when I
go home at night
Head
Teacher
… in reality, neglect is what the school
teacher, physician, social worker,
judge, psychologist, or police officer
“say it is” at the time of the
report...one should not get hung up
on the definition of child neglect but
rather get on with helping these
children, who are being cared for in a
manner far below our society’s
accepted standards.
Helfer, 1987
What does
this child
need?
It’s a feeling…that
something isn’t right. It’s an
instinct and a feeling of
something being terribly
wrong. I guess it comes
from tiny details when you
link on thing with another.
(Paavilainen and Tarkka, 2003)
How good are we at recognising children who
are at risk of, or are experiencing neglect?
 81% of health and education professionals have
encountered neglected children.
 Professionals across the board are increasingly aware of
such children and of their responsibilities to these
children.
‘Although neglect is less clear-cut than other forms of
abuse, there is more awareness than there was and earlier
identification. Staff from agencies, such as housing, know
what to look for when they are going into homes for other
reasons’ (Focus group respondent).
I’ve seen worse.
It’s not that
bad really.
They’re happy
underneath it.
Children can be
dirty but happy.
I mustn’t
impose my
middleclass values
In summary
 Response for the general public and professions
other than social work/services/CPS tended to
mean 'referral’
 Response for social work/services/CPS tended
to mean 'investigation'.
 The main problem lies, not so much in
recognition, as in the perceived complexity of
the response mechanism.
The case must
reach the threshold,
resources are
scarce.
Of course
something must
be done!
hungry
guidance
sad
tired
PRACTITIONER
CHILD
unloved
SIMPLE
assessment
categories
System
dirty
multiagency
resouces
COMPLEX
(Daniel et. al 2011)
Children
are stuck
in the net
All practitioners need to coalesce
around:
 assessing the child’s unmet needs in all
domains,
 assessing the reasons for needs not being met,
 assessing parental capacity to meet those
needs,
 assessing parental motivation to meet the
child’s needs with support,
 assessing parental capacity to adapt and
change with support.
And distinguish between an assessment of a child’s needs and
where they are unmet
 an assessment of the reason for the
needs being unmet and
 an assessment about whether
compulsory measures might be required
and develop plans accordingly.
Assessments should include examination of problems,
causes, and barriers at all system levels, that is,
individual, family, organizational/community, and
cultural. It is equally important to identify and
acknowledge the strengths, coping skills, and
resources of parents and other family members that
may be mobilized to reduce the risk of further
maltreatment. The availability and accessibility of
informal social network supports and formally
organized supportive services should also be
considered in the assessment.
(Gaudin, 1993)
What does
this child
need?
What does
this child
need me to
think about?
As direct or indirect consequences of such social
policies, millions of children in our society live in
poverty and are inadequately nourished, clothed,
housed, and educated; their health is not assured
because of substandard medical care; their
neighbourhoods decay; meaningful occupational
opportunities are not available to them; and
alienation is widespread among them. No doubt,
these destructive conditions, which result,
inevitably, from the normal workings of the
prevailing social, economic, and political order and
from the value premises which shape that order and
its human dynamics, cannot fail to inhibit severely
the development of children exposed to them.
(Gil, 1975)
What we want to know is what services
we have been providing for whom and on
what basis can we assess whether we are
successful. We need a consistent data set,
so we can aggregate that data. We have
agreed an outline with other agencies
what that data set should look like. I am
cautiously optimistic that we will have
meaningful information and then can
plan services accordingly.
Survey respondent
Services
 The general public want services for
families to be funded.
 62% per cent want projects which
support families before problems get
worse,
 47% per cent want health-based services
 42% school-based services and 41%
preventive services.
Practitioners
 Staff in universal services want:
 more treatment services for adults in relation to
substance misuse, mental health problems and
domestic abuse (32%),
 more time (29%), more resources (27%) and more
advice (34%) on how to help struggling families,
 clearer guidance from employers or government
on when to intervene (33%).
 83% of social workers want to undertake more
direct work with children and families.
Since neglecting families often generate
multiple reports to protective services, many
different protective service workers may be
involved with the same family over a period
of years. This method of delivery is
outmoded and cannot be condoned.
Ongoing long-term service given by a given
protective service worker with a family can
be invaluable.
(Helfer, 1987)
For those children who remain with their
families, these services must continue until
they are old enough to fend for themselves.
While the cost of this type of intervention,
including that which is necessary for the
school system, is almost prohibitive, the cost
of not caring for these families is enormous.
(Helfer, 1987)
What does
this child
need?
What does
this child
need me to
think about?
What does
this child
need me to
do?
Framework
 What does this child need to grow and
develop and what does his or her family or
carer need to provide a nurturing
environment?
 What does this child and their family or carer
need me to think about?
 What does this child and their family or carer
need me to do?
 What does this child need me to feel?
We knew
this years ago!