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

Neglect and Serious Case Reviews
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because they are older and have survived into their teens (Stein et al 2009, Rees et
al 2011, Wade et al 2011, Brandon and Thoburn 2008). Rees and colleagues’ recent
work has also given us powerful evidence of the types of neglect that contribute to
young people’s long-term social, emotional and psychological damage. There is some
evidence that young people who have lived with maltreatment are more likely to suffer
from physical illness and to die early, including by suicide (Meadows et al 2011).
The analysis presented in Chapter 2 showed that neglect featured more prominently for
11–15 year olds than for any other age group (see Table 2.12). When older young people
are the subject of a serious case review because they have taken their own lives, neglect
and rejection feature prominently in their history. A history of neglect and the thread of
neglect run through almost all of the cases of young suicide in serious case reviews.
There is increasing awareness of the problem of suicide among young people. Establishing
the numbers of young people who die in this way is difficult however since coroners
are reluctant to give a verdict of suicide without corroborating evidence like a suicide
note. A recent statistical release from the Department for Education (DfE 2012) presents
an analysis of the 4,012 childhood deaths reviewed by child death overview panels
between April 2011 and March 2012 and the extent to which these deaths have factors
which are ‘modifiable’ and hence more amenable to prevention. Modifiable factors
were identified in a higher proportion of deaths of older children (nearly a third of all
deaths in children aged 15–17 years having modifiable factors) compared to younger
children (18 per cent of deaths in children ages under one year). The deaths from suicide
were found to have modifiable factors in 41 per cent of cases, particularly in relation to
young people’s risk taking behaviour. This underlines the interest in suicide prevention
strategies.
For many young people at the centre of a review the impact of neglect was compounded
by experiencing the whole gamut of maltreatment types at various times through their
life. A number of those who had long histories of agency involvement, were identified in
the 2003–2005 biennial report as ‘hard to help’, and consequently found themselves to
be neglected by agencies (Brandon et al 2008). The case vignette below is a composite
of seven cases and exemplifies a profile of young people in serious case reviews who
took their own life.
compoSite vigNette – frazer aged 15, Suicide aNd loNg-term
Neglect
Key features of the case:
• Long-term neglect.
• Serious abuse and rejection.
• Hard to help young person.
• Suicide.