Learning the Lessons of Child Abuse and Neglect

Learning the lessons of child abuse and neglect

A new report by the University of East Anglia shows that during the period 2003 to 2005, agencies were struggling to prevent serious injury and death among abused and neglected children.

Commissioned by the UK Government, the in-depth findings will be published by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) on Thursday January 31.
The UEA researchers studied 161 serious case reviews (SCRs) in England between April 2003 and March 2005. Of these, two thirds of the children died and the rest were seriously injured. Almost half of the children were under 12-months-old.

The report found:
· 55 per cent of the children were known to children’s social care at the time of the incident and 12 per cent were named on the child protection register
· 83 per cent of the families involved had been previously known to children’s social care
· Some cases were ‘closed’ just days or weeks before the incident
· All agencies were preoccupied with eligibility for services rather than having a primary concern for the child
· Agencies neglected ‘hard to help’ older children (over the age of 13), wasting time arguing about which agency was responsible
· Poor communication between agencies was common
· In families where children suffered long-term neglect, children’s social care often failed to take account of past history
“Our report makes powerful reading. Though the majority of these cases were essentially unpredictable, our findings suggest that risk could be minimised if practitioners were more curious and thought more critically and more systematically. But in order to practise in this way, workers need to be well supported, by their managers and senior managers. Many practitioners lacked support and were in teams depleted by staff absence and long term sickness,” said lead author Marian Brandon, a child care specialist at the University of East Anglia.
“In many cases families were known to adult services and not just to children’s services. There needs to be a shift so that children and whole families are a priority for all agencies not just those directed at children. We need better join up between agencies and more creative, more responsive services that have the interests of children at their core.”
SCRs are carried out when a child dies or is seriously injured due to abuse or neglect and there are lessons to be learnt about inter-agency working. Every two years, an analysis is made of all such cases in England to establish trends and inform policy and practice. The UEA report covers reviews which took place between April 2003 to March 2005 and is the third such analysis.
‘Analysing Child Deaths and Serious Injury through Abuse and Neglect: What can we Learn?’ is published on Thursday January 31. The authors are Marian Brandon, Pippa Belderson, Jane Dodsworth, Ruth Gardner, David Howe, Catherine Warren and Jane Black. All except Jane Black are members of the Centre for Research on the Child and Family in the School of Social Work and Psychosocial Sciences at the University of East Anglia. Ruth Gardner is also employed by the NSPCC. Jane Black is a Designated Nurse at Norwich PCT.

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