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

Neglect and Serious Case Reviews
themeS aNd learNiNg poiNtS
child with complex medical needs or disability
SCR suggests that medical professionals may be overly optimistic that
families will be able to care for a child with a long-term illness even
when there is evidence to the contrary.
• Non-compliant parent(s): Ben’s mother refused to continue working
with the first health visitor when she expressed concerns over Ben’s
deterioration after the birth of his sibling. Rather than follow up on the
health visitor’s intentions of involving social care, however, she was
replaced by a second health visitor who again allowed the mother
time to improve. The SCR suggests professionals did not appropriately
challenge the mother’s behaviours in order to safeguard Ben.
• changing family circumstances: Professionals (health care and
second health visitor) did not seem to have considered the impact of
another child’s arrival in a family unit, where the mother was already
struggling to care for a child with a long-term serious medical condition
and a newly ended relationship. While allowing the mother more time
to cope might have been an adequate response for a limited period
of time, the changing family circumstances should have prompted a
change in approach.
• failure to involve father/partner: There was no sign that professionals
included the father of the child in any assessment or asked about his
involvement with Ben. For a long time, the identity of the father seemed
unknown to professionals. This led the SCR to highlight the importance
fathers/partners have on children’s wellbeing.
Children in this category might have been born with complex health needs or disabilities,
or they may have developed a serious childhood illness. All of these children, however,
required long-term and often complicated care.
parental responses to complex medical needs and disability
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While some parents in these medical neglect cases responded to their child’s long-term
medical condition with frequent hospital visits and attentive parenting, others displayed
a less attentive, more clumsy way of interacting with the child or the child’s siblings and
this was flagged as a point of concern by hospital staff or children’s social care. In some
instances, parents were unwilling to accept their child’s diagnosis, or were not fully
capable of understanding their child’s condition. Early care of a child with an illness
was often closely monitored by health visitors and in some cases by children’s social
care. In most of these particular SCRs, parents were described as attempting to keep up
with and fully understand their child’s medical needs.