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

Neglect and Serious Case Reviews
parents or carers can take to reduce those risks. Among other things, this has involved
delivering training sessions to professionals working directly with children and families
to increase knowledge of the risk factors (Cooper and Pemberton 2009). Although
campaigns such as this have been developed on a local level, there are also implications
for national-level strategies about how best to target those children and families who
may be at highest risk.
3.6 Neglect iN combiNatioN with phySical abuSe
64
High profile cases like the death of the toddler Peter Connelly have shown that where
children are known to be experiencing neglect at home they can die in situations of
horrific abuse. Neglect is associated with sub-optimal and indeed poor development but
the existence of neglect does not preclude the possibility of children also experiencing
other very serious maltreatment.
Chapter 2 has shown that there was evidence of physical abuse for over a third of the
children with a plan for neglect (Table 2.9). Moreover, our examination of serious case
reviews where children died revealed that almost a quarter of the children with a plan for
neglect died from a physical assault (see Table 2.6). In this section we offer an in depth
analysis of themes drawn from seven reviews which offer some important messages for
understanding.
The vignette that follows is based on features from seven cases where neglect was the
key concern but the child also experienced very serious physical injury, leading to either
death or very serious harm.
compoSite vigNette – ‘evie’ aged 4 moNthS – Neglect aNd
phySical abuSe
Key features of the case:
• Death of a 4 month old baby from a head injury. There were numerous
other fractures.
• The case was considered to be ‘low level’ neglect, with concerns about
emotional maltreatment in the older sibling – even when a history of
violent offences was revealed for both parents.
• The family moved house frequently.
• Home conditions were disorganised but not poor.
• The children’s mother was dominant and controlling and the father was
the main carer.