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Neglect (County Durham Children and Families Practice Toolkit)

Helping families address neglect

Evidence shows that the major issue facing children who need a Child Protection Plan is neglect. By the time the situation has deteriorated to the point that protection is required, children have often lived several years of their lives in these circumstances.

It is known that practitioners often find it difficult to identify and respond to indicators of neglect or appreciate their severity. This practice toolkit aims to assist practitioners across services to identify early signs of neglect and develop more responsive and timely interventions to address concerns about neglect. It looks to make sure that practitioners focus their attention on:

  • patterns of parental behaviour
  • the impact this behaviour may be having on the child’s physical, emotional, psychological and behavioural development and well-being
  • the impact on the child’s attachment behaviours
  • the specificity of the child’s day to day lived experience over time

The reason for this focus on the impact on the child’s well-being as a consequence of the parent(s) behaviour, is that too often attention by professionals is focussed on the parent(s) unmet needs to the exclusion of understanding the potential or actual impact on the child. Often interventions to address concerns about neglect are compromised by professional concerns about the meeting (or otherwise) of certain thresholds. In Durham we have sought to address this by implementing the ‘Durham Threshold‘, so that professionals can be guided to the most appropriate level of intervention at the earliest opportunity.

While thresholds are important, especially when applying child protection procedures or the decision to instigate care proceedings, the guiding principles for all professionals when considering intervention in cases of neglect is:

  • What does this child need?
  • What does this child need me to think about?
  • What does this child need me to do?

The way in which we work with families has a direct impact on the outcomes that they achieve. Our overarching aim is to build positive relationships with children and families which are built on mutual respect, are trauma informed and restorative in nature. Our chosen Practice Framework in Durham is Durham Safeguarding Children Partnership: signs of safety/wellbeing and this approach will be applied to all our work with children and families where neglect is of concern. Durham Safeguarding Childrens Partnership (DSCP) have rolled out the use of the Durham Safeguarding Children Partnership: graded care profile 2 to help practitioners identify and support families to address the negative impact of neglect on children. All practitioners must be trained to use the tool and access to training can be found at Durham Safeguarding Children Partnership: training. The Graded Care Profile 2 Toolkit is for all professionals who work with children and young people and adults who are parents/carers.

Neglect information sources

Neglect tools