If you are a professional looking for the SSCP Neglect Screening Tool, Single and Multi-Agency Chronology Guidance (2020) and Tackling Child Neglect in Shropshire Support Pack they can be downloaded here
Shropshire Safeguarding Community Partnership identified tackling childhood neglect as one of its strategic priorities between April 2020 and the end of March 2023. We know that when children are neglected it impacts on their development through childhood, adolescence and into adulthood, and that it is highly likely that the consequences of childhood neglect will endure through a person’s whole life course.
A number of other resources and tools are available for practitioners to use in their work with children and families on the right of this page.
What is Neglect?
Neglect is defined as:
‘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 in 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 adequate care-givers)
- Ensure access to appropriate medical care or treatment
It may also include neglect of, or unresponsiveness to, a child’s basic emotional needs. (Working Together to Safeguard Children 2018)