Neglect

Neglect is one of the most common features of a child protection plan and is the most prevalent form of abuse in the UK, featuring in over 60% of child safeguarding practice reviews.

Neglect is the ongoing failure to meet a child's basic needs and can have a significant impact on the outcomes of a child, leading to serious impairment of health and developmental issues.

In Wakefield we are committed to help support those who work or volunteer with children and their families for Early Identification: Early Intervention

A multi-agency response is essential in keeping the child from any further harm.

Take me straight to the online Neglect Toolkit

Different types of neglect

It is more common for neglect to be cumulative rather than episodic. Typically neglect is defined as:

Emotional – Inadequate care and attention to a child during development stages; not providing adequate social stimulation, including love and affection.
Affluent – Occurs in wealthy famillies and more difficult to spot as it is often hidden. Affluent neglect experienced by children and young people is often emotional or controlling and can be equally devastating. Read more here.
Physical – Failing to provide supervision such as abandonment and basic survival needs such as shelter, clothing, heat or nutritional needs and endangering a child’s life.
Educational – Failing to support a child’s attendance and development within the school environment, failure to recognise the educational needs of a child. Read more here.
Medical -Failing to seek treatment for illness or accident or deliberately causing harm to a child. Can oftern include missed health visits, lack of engagments for immunisations or the absense of dental or optical care when needed.
Moral – Failing to teach social expectations in what is right or wrong or failure to recognise cultural and religious needs, privacy, dignity and the right to choice.

Neglect v’s Poverty

Neglect is a behaviour, it is not a lack of what a family have!

Protective Factors in Neglect

Prevention and early intervention in child neglect is essential. Protective factors moderate risk or adversity for children (which can lead to ACE's) and can keep a child from further harm. Some protective factors include:

Parental Resilience and coping strategies
Parental support to understand a child's development and their needs
Building family / support systems
Education and communication (particularly literacy)

A child can become more at risk when these building blocks are not in place and co-existing factors such as alcohol or drug misuse, domestic abuse, mental ill health can increase the risks dramatically.

Find out more about how we are are building protective factors through family interventions in Wakefield by visiting Wakefield Families Together

To understanding more about Adverse Childhood Expereince's (ACE's) visit our trauma page.

Next steps

What to do if you are concerned about Neglect

There is plenty of support available to you in the Wakefield District if you are concerned a child is being abused.

If a child is in immediate danger, do not delay and call 999. Visit our worried about a child page for more information if your concern is urgent.

In early 2023, WSCP launched a Neglect Campaign to help tackle safeguarding concerns here in Wakefield.

We have a miriad of tools, training and resources below to help you keep children safe from neglect.

Neglect toolkit, assessment form and guidance

Click here
Neglect campaign tools

Click here
Multi Agency Neglect : A Shared Responsibility Training

Click here
Pre recorded training / resources on Neglect

Click here

2024 Training Dates now available

In 2023, WSCP trained 197 practitioners. 46% of you signed up to become a neglect champion.

To find out more about the feedback from 2023 click here or click below to book a place onto the updated 2024 training.

Book my 2024 training

Have you heard about the WSCP Neglect Champions?

What does it involve?
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Essentially we want to invite you to share and champion our campaign around neglect which will give practitioners confidence in using the neglect toolkit and its supporting documents.

Champions will become an expert in this field and a point of contact within their agency for those who have concerns and unsure about how to progress. We ask that all champions attend the Multi Agency Neglect Training and include the neglect email signature where you can as well as encouraging your peers to add any promotion around the use of the Neglect toolkit onto their agendas and into their conversations, and ensure that all internal documents are up to date and follow the latest guidance. We would like to gather evidence of good practice to build up a series of case studies and you may be the perfect conduit to do this?

We will keep our Champions up to date with any developments so you can share these within your networks. You might also want to join our pool of facilitators and co-deliver the training? But don’t worry – there’s no pressure to do this!
Who can be a Champion?
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If you are an expert in Neglect or have a passion in this area we want to hear from YOU.

In 2023 we had 46% of all trained practitioners who signed up to become a Neglect Champion, so a big thank you to you and for all your support!