Neglecting the issue
Child neglect is the most common form of child abuse
in the UK today. While we are learning more about the causes and
consequences of the issue than ever before, it remains the biggest
reason for a child to need protection. With studies suggesting
neglect is robbing almost 1.5 million UK children of their
childhood, it is in everybody's power to help.
In October 2009, we launched a dedicated campaign to raise
awareness of child neglect. We have spoken to a broad cross-section
of society, including the general public, childcare professionals
and children themselves, to find out what they know about neglect
and how often they see it. The results are startling: child neglect
is everywhere and our collective response simply not good
enough.
Neglecting the issue, written in partnership
with the University of Stirling, is a new report which
identifies six key gaps in knowledge about child neglect; gaps
which need to be investigated in order to help reduce - and even
prevent - the problem. These are: the role of fathers, targeting
families, public health and prevention, parental and carers' views,
actively seeking children's views, and understanding the scale of
neglect.
The report also states that poverty, substance misuse and
inability to access local family support services are among the
factors that can increase child neglect.
Read more about our key findings in Neglecting the
issue:
As part of our campaign, we are committed to sharing the
findings of this report, using them to inform our work and doing
all we can to influence policy-makers to improve the way child
neglect is tackled.
Find out what
you can do to help us tackle child neglect.