Neglect
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 caregivers)
- ensure access to appropriate medical care or treatment
- provide suitable education
It may also include neglect of, or unresponsiveness to, a child’s basic emotional needs
Working Together 2026
Think Neglect! Multi-Agency Resources
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- Think Neglect! Toolkit
- Think Neglect! Multi-agency Checklist
- Video presentation introducing the resources...
Training available from OSCP
Our one day neglect course offers an opportunity to explore the issues relating to the neglect of children. There are 10 sessions available over the course of a year with online or in person options.
We also provide monthly neglect deep dive sessions which look in greater depth at key issues such as the neglect of babies and very young children, neglect in large families, and the intersectionality between neglect and domestic abuse.
The Graded Care Profile 2 (GCP2) is an evidence-based assessment tool that helps practitioners measure the quality of care provided by a parent or carer in meeting their child’s needs, particularly where there are concerns about neglect. A review of OSCP delivery of the GCP2 Training for Practitioners resulted in Cornwall Council's Children and Families Service assuming responsibility to deliver GCP2 training as part of their core curriculum, whilst OSCP agreed to deliver our Think Neglect! multi-agency toolkit of resources.
Further Reading & Resources
- Our Neglect Strategy can be accessed here.
- We have also recently published a learning briefing following a multi-agency case audit focused on neglect in large family groups, you can access the briefing here.
- The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel have developed a Learning Hub which provides key information from national and local learning from reviews including statistics, info-graphics, online learning and videos around the topic of neglect - you can view the resources here.