Neglect

Neglect remains one of the most significant safeguarding concerns for children and young people, both nationally and within Stockport.

Working Together to Safeguard Children (Department for Education, 2026) defines neglect 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.”

National learning continues to highlight the prevalence and impact of neglect. The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel’s 2024 to 2025 annual report found that neglect was a feature in 60% of serious incident reviews, underlining the need for early recognition and effective, coordinated responses. Read the annual report in full.

We aim to support practitioners across Stockport to identify neglect at the earliest opportunity, understand the lived experience of children, and work alongside families to provide the right support at the right time. By focusing on strengths as well as risks, we seek to build sustainable change that improves outcomes for children and their families.

The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel are due to release their thematic review of neglect and its impact imminently. For updates and other reports, visit The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel website.

Stockport Safeguarding Children Partnership Neglect Strategy 2025 to 2027

Our Neglect Strategy sets out our approach for the next 2 years. The strategy has been developed by members of our neglect sub-group and gives information and guidance to practitioners working with families. You can download a copy below. If you need an alternative format of this strategy such as a Word document version, please email us at lsb@stockport.gov.uk.

We're a licensed Graded Care Profile 2 (GCP 2) site. The GCP 2 is an evidence-based assessment tool to help practitioners and families identify areas where parents and carers are doing well and where they may need some extra support. The GCP 2 also helps to identify where there are concerns of neglect for children. To use this tool you must attend the training offered in Stockport by the SSCP training pool. Visit the NSPCC website to find more information about Graded Care Profile 2 (GCP2). For practitioners wanting to book on training about neglect, how to identify and assess and use the GCP 2, visit our training for practitioners webpages.

Practitioners working with children and families should refer to the multi-agency response to need guidance and consider contacting the MASSH for additional support for families. Concerns about welfare of children suffering harm should always be referred to the MASSH.

Practitioners should also consider (in line with the above guidance) talking to parents and carers about support at the earliest opportunity and consider Early Help Assessment where appropriate.

Stockport also have Family Hubs where families can access support and guidance. You can find more information on our Family Hubs webpages.

Neglect toolkit

In Stockport, we use a range of tools to help us understand, assess, and respond to neglect.

These tools support practitioners to identify the seriousness of concerns, recognise patterns over time, analyse the impact on the child, and develop a clearer understanding of the underlying causes; the ‘why’ behind neglect.

We ask that all professionals undertaking assessments with families where neglect is a feature use this tool and the resources contained within the document.

Additional training and resources

For all practitioners working with children, young people and families in Stockport, Neglect and Graded Care Profile 2 Training is available to book onto:

• training and events at Stockport Support Service
• training for practitioners

Additional reading

“Why did it take so long to respond?”: Training and Child neglect: A thematic analysis (PDF 569Kb)

Too little, too late: The multi agency response to identifying and tackling neglect (PDF 1.9Mb)

Neglect: Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel

How the GCP2 assessment tool for neglect supports families and practitioners to achieve change: NSPCC Learning

Protecting children from neglect: NSPCC Learning

Neglect Liquid Logic workflow guidance