Neglect and serious case reviews (PDF, 735KB) - nspcc

There are encouraging signs of a drop in the number of SCRs where a child had a CP
plan for neglect in place at the time of the death or serious injury.
Although we should be careful not to over-interpret these results because of the small
numbers involved, looking at two year periods, we can see a gradual decrease over time
from 12 per cent during 2005–07, to 9 per cent during 2007–09 and 6 per cent between
2009–11. This could suggest that children in the community with a CP plan for neglect
might be being better protected. It is possible that this reflects practice improvements and
that most recently, child protection plans for neglect were being used more successfully.
This fall in the number of SCRs for children with a CP plan for neglect looks promising
but the equivocal nature of neglect and the way it can be re-categorised also needs to
be borne in mind. This means that we cannot be sure that the most serious cases of
neglect are formally recognised and that these children will always have a plan for
their protection. It may be that many neglected children are slipping through the net of
protective services.
There was no similar decline in the number of reviews for children who had a
discontinued CP plan for neglect – and the question remains as to why the plan was
removed. With the benefit of hindsight it is apparent that the risks of serious harm had
not abated once the plan was discontinued and that these children might have needed
a CP plan again, or for longer. These children do seem to have fallen through the net
and provide an argument for ensuring continued support and maintenance of safe care
for children who have had a plan for neglect. These children should not be overlooked
through the emphasis on early intervention.
demographic characteriSticS
2. Neglect in the lives of children who become the subject of a serious case review – a statistical overview
Table 2.2 compares demographic characteristics for those 101 children with a current or
discontinued plan for neglect with:
• Other children for whom there was a plan but in a different category (74 children);
• The whole sample of children for whom a SCR was conducted, excluding those with
a CP plan under category of neglect (544 children). Columns 1a and 1c thus sum to
the whole set of reviews in relation to 645 children.
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