Shropshire Children's Safeguarding Partnership has identified tackling childhood neglect as one of its strategic priorities. We know that when children are neglected it impacts on their development through childhood, adolescence and into adulthood, and that it is highly likely that the consequences of childhood neglect will endure through a person’s whole life course.
Neglect is defined in Working Together 2023 as:
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