Disabled children overlooked by child protection services, Ofsted says

The report, Protecting Disabled Children, involved a survey of 12 council child protection services and analysis of 173 cases.

It found that disabled children are more likely to suffer abuse or neglect at home, but professionals do not always take this into account.

In a number of cases, inspectors uncovered incidents of parents providing their disabled children with poor quality care that amounted to neglect, but the problems had not been picked up by social workers.

One case highlighted by inspectors involved the neglect of a young person with autism. Even though the family was receiving support from social services, the neglect was not identified until an investigation of abuse against a sibling was launched. 

Ofsted warned that social workers too often failed to consider families’ history, such as previous incidents of domestic violence, parental mental health problems or neglect.

The report said: “In a sizeable minority of cases decisions were taken that no further action was needed by children’s social care. These decisions were not appropriate given the extent of the concerns.”

Ofsted’s deputy chief inspector John Goldup explained: “In some cases the focus on support for parents and their children seemed to obscure the child’s need for protection.”

Despite this, Ofsted did praise the speed of action taken by social workers when disabled children were subject to child protection plans. The report said “effective action was taken to reduce risks or improve the quality of parenting” adding that “in most cases children made good progress.”

Among recommendations for councils and local safeguarding children boards, the Ofsted report said that thresholds for child protection must be more “rigorously applied” to disabled children.

Councils also need to make sure the views of children with disabilities are taken into account and that professionals across social care and health regularly review children in need plans, the report said.

According to government figures for March 2011 just 3.8 per cent of the 42,700 children who were subject to a child protection plan have a disability.

Sue Kent, professional officer at the British Association of Social Workers, warned that she fears child protection support for children with disabilities could worsen.

“The government needs to guard against treating disabled children as second class citizens through inaction and deregulation,” she said.

“Cuts to benefits, likely to affect an estimated 100,000 disabled children, will put families under increasing strain and increase the risk of neglect and other abuse, which we know is exacerbated by higher levels of stress and family poverty.

“The terrible paradox of disabled children being more likely to be abused while less likely to be subject to child protection has been on the radar for many years, yet current plans to cut child protection guidance by the removal of a specific chapter from Working Together, will no doubt lead to confusion and lack of a consistent service from agencies responsible for protecting disabled children."

She added that social workers need more training and time to work with disabled children.

“Building the relationships necessary to communicate with disabled children is a time consuming and important task,” she said. “Social workers must be provided with the desperately needed space and training they require to do the work properly.”