Child neglect concerns the number one reason for adults reaching out to our Helpline

The national emergency of neglect

Between April 2024 and March 2025, our Helpline handled 17,734 child welfare contacts from across the UK where neglect was the greatest risk.

This accounted for 25% of the almost 70,000 contacts received by our Helpline over the past year.

Adults who got in touch spoke about witnessing children not having access to food, safe shelter, clothing, shoes, being left home alone and not having their emotional and physical needs met. 41% of contacts were serious enough to require a referral to local safeguarding agencies for additional support.

Financial difficulty, a lack of access to essential services, insecure housing and other challenges can create an environment where a child's needs can't be met.

When families don't receive the support they need to relieve that pressure and address emerging concerns, significant risks to children often follow.

Our latest Helpline data reflects a continuing trend and deeply rooted problem, rather than an isolated occurrence. For four consecutive years, child neglect has been the most frequently reported concern by adults to our Helpline, totalling over 60,000 contacts.

A national neglect strategy

Neglect can impact a child’s physical and mental health, hold back their development and disrupt their ability to form secure relationships, which is why it's so essential families get the support they need early to prevent this harm.

This new Helpline data has been published ahead of a new amendment to the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill this week by Baroness Tyler and Baroness Walmsley.

The peers are due to put forward an amendment that would require Government to introduce a national neglect strategy and improved guidance for better tackling neglect.

We're particularly concerned about the pervasive nature of neglect, as many children go without the support they need to tackle this form of child abuse.

In fact, neglect is the only form of child maltreatment which is defined by its persistence, meaning there is expectation that it must continue for a time before intervention.  

When neglect is the primary form of maltreatment it may not necessarily be an individual incident that meets the threshold for serious harm. Instead, it's often a patchwork of concerning lower-level reports built up over time to form a picture of cumulative harm.

Professionals have previously told us that it can be difficult to assess the point at which thresholds are met, meaning neglect can persist and cause further harm and risk to children.

We're calling on the Government to treat neglect as an urgent, national emergency and are supporting this new amendment to the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill.

We believe that a national strategy should include the following:

• information about what neglect looks like and the sharing of local and national best practice in dealing with it
• further upskilling for professionals around neglect as a priority, including a national neglect awareness campaign
• a commitment to looking at the definition of neglect within the working together guidance to remove the word ‘persistent’
• how much money should be put towards dealing with this issue.