Privilege and pain: the realities of affluent neglect – Words by Alex Dave, Safeguarding Education Officer, LGfL-The National Grid for Learning

 

Alex Dave, Safeguarding Education Officer, LGfL–The National Grid for Learning, explores the realities of affluent neglect, and offers advice to designated safeguarding leads (DSLs) and schools.

Ask the majority of people, and they will usually associate neglect, with children from disadvantaged backgrounds. This is a common societal bias which creates difficulties in identifying neglect in other contexts, for example, in children from more ‘privileged’ backgrounds. For the professionals involved, addressing neglect in affluent families can bring different challenges.

The Department for Education (DfE) 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’.

Neglect is abuse through omission – a failure to provide. Although children from affluent backgrounds are likely to (but not always) be provided with excellent housing, a nutritious diet, exceptional education and access to opportunities, they could be living in a home environment lacking emotionally-nurturing parenting behaviours.

Research by Professor Claudia Bernard (Goldsmiths, University of London) outlined the following as the most prevalent causes of affluent neglect:

• Emotional disconnect – parent’s work commitments may mean the child is looked after by paid carers and their emotional needs are left unfulfilled by their parents.
• Pressure to succeed – high expectations for the child to achieve, result in high levels of anxiety and stress, which can of course affect a child’s health and development for many years.
• Parental alcohol and substance abuse, may in some cases, lead to a more relaxed attitude towards the child’s consumption of alcohol or drugs. The child may also have increased means to buy them.
• Domestic abuse – abusive relationships within the home, cause emotional harm to the child.

The study also highlighted the difficulties that can be faced by professionals once neglect is identified and addressed. Research showed that wealthier parents often become adversarial, and ‘used their status and social capital to resist child protection intervention, and many also displayed a sense of entitlement to do as they pleased and that they know best’.

What can schools do?

The points below, will help schools improve both their identification of affluent neglect and their response:

• Ensure the school’s safeguarding role is made clear when the child joins. The school’s responsibilities should be clearly communicated, along with the expectations for parents to be in partnership with the school.
• Consider how neglect is covered in your policies and procedures, and to what extent these help staff to identify and respond to affluent neglect.
• Create relationships that build trust, so parents feel more confident to share concerns or difficulties they are experiencing, which may be affecting their child.
• Keep the child in the centre. If concerns arise, make the child the focus to pre-empt parents’ reaction towards intervention. Both the parents and the school want what’s best for the child, and both are legally responsible.
• Communication is crucial. Regular interaction means support can be given at the earliest stages of concern. Colleagues should ensure concerns conveyed to parents, are explicit and specific and relate to the impact on a child’s health and development, to avoid incorrect assumptions being made.
• Staff training. Provide opportunities for staff to explore broad examples of neglect and dispel the stereotypes, to ensure staff identify neglect in all contexts.
• Support the child to recover. Acknowledge the impact of any neglect. Schools can offer a variety of different support, helping children to feel safe, loved and accepted at school, and to eventually recover.

It is important to acknowledge the lens through which discussions about neglect take place, to question the bias towards disadvantage and neglect, and ensure that all staff in schools recognise that it occurs across the socio-economic divide. This will ensure that the reporting of neglect in more affluent families is strong.

Neglect is usually unintentional and occurs as a consequence of a myriad of factors in a parent or family’s life. The majority of parents undoubtably love their children and want what’s best for them. So the best approach schools can adopt, to safeguard children who may be experiencing this, is one of curiosity, empathy and support, ensuring the child’s welfare is central to all decisions taken.

For free information, support and training about neglect, please visit https://neglect.lgfl.net