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Social Work vocabulary · Child Protection and Safeguarding

Neglect

Meaning in social work, with examples

/nɪˈɡlekt/nounCore term

In social work, neglect means: The ongoing failure to meet a child's or dependent adult's basic needs, such as food, safety, hygiene, health care, supervision or emotional warmth.

In Turkish: ihmal, bakım ihmali

How it is used

One of the main categories of child maltreatment, also used for adults; self-neglect is when people do not look after themselves. Neglect is usually seen as a pattern over time, so chronologies and repeated observations matter. It is also a verb: neglect a child.

Example sentences

  1. The referral raised concerns about neglect: the children were often hungry at school.

  2. Signs of self-neglect included an empty fridge and unpaid bills.

Common collocations

  • signs of neglect
  • chronic neglect
  • self-neglect
  • emotional neglect
  • concerns about neglect
  • abuseTreatment that causes someone physical, emotional, sexual or financial harm, usually by a person they know, trust or depend on.
  • child protectionThe work of identifying children who are suffering, or are likely to suffer, abuse or neglect and taking action to keep them safe.
  • chronologyA list of the significant events in a person's or family's life and in the case, in date order, used to spot patterns over time.
  • parenting capacityA parent's ability to meet a child's needs and keep them safe, including basic care, emotional warmth, guidance, boundaries and stability.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Child Protection and Safeguarding

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