Social care fails to act quickly enough over neglect

The thematic review, In the Child’s Time: Professional Responses to Neglect, says reform is needed to ensure victims of neglect are removed from families at the earliest opportunity.

Based on evidence from parents, children’s professionals and carers the review found that in around half of long-term cases children are being left for too long in harmful situations.

Too often social workers prioritise the needs of vulnerable adults over children, says the report, which adds that council managers’ oversight of the risk to children is “not good enough”.

Social workers are also failing to take repeat incidents and family history of neglect into account.

Debbie Jones, Ofsted director for social care, said: “Some children live with serious and complicated difficulties in their families, and we need to examine what we can and should be doing to stop neglect far earlier in their lives.”

Other findings in the Ofsted review are that social workers are not being offered in-depth training in recognising signs of neglect and LSCBs have little understanding of the extent of neglect in their area or how to monitor whether social workers are effectively tackling the issue.

Ofsted is also calling on councils to share examples of timely, effective responses to neglect with each other.

David Simmonds, chairman of the Local Government Association’s children and young people board, said social workers “face incredibly tough decisions between leaving a child with a loving but struggling family or the risks of taking them into care”.

He added: “We will ensure that the positive practice and areas for development highlighted in Ofsted’s report are shared widely across the country, supporting all councils to continue improving their own local responses to child neglect.”

The review was called for by the charity Action for Children, which has published its own report highlighting the extent of child neglect in the UK and based on interviews with 18,000 people, including 4,000 children.

Its report, Child Neglect: The Scandal That Never Breaks, found just under three quarters of UK children know another child who is suffering from neglect.

The charity is urging the government to create a strategy to tackle the issue, including making it easier for the public to report concerns online.

Sir Tony Hawkhead, Action for Children chief executive, said: “Child neglect is rife. They are not fed or clothed properly. They consistently miss medical appointments or are absent from school. They are ignored by their parents, left on their own or completely disregarded by the people who are supposed to love them unconditionally.

“Our research shows that children as young as eight can see it, so why can’t the government do more?”