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Social Work vocabulary · Child Protection and Safeguarding

Significant harm

Meaning in social work, with examples

nounAdvanced term

In social work, significant harm means: In UK child protection law, the level of harm, or likely harm, that justifies statutory action such as a formal investigation or care proceedings.

In Turkish: ciddi zarar, önemli düzeyde zarar

How it is used

A threshold concept from the Children Act 1989. Social workers ask whether a child is suffering, or is likely to suffer, significant harm. There is no fixed checklist: it depends on the effect on the child's health and development.

Example sentences

  1. The strategy meeting agreed that the threshold for significant harm was met.

  2. Living with domestic abuse can cause significant harm to children.

Common collocations

  • suffering significant harm
  • likely to suffer significant harm
  • threshold of significant harm
  • risk of significant harm
  • child protectionThe work of identifying children who are suffering, or are likely to suffer, abuse or neglect and taking action to keep them safe.
  • at riskIn a situation where harm, abuse, neglect or another serious problem is likely to happen unless someone takes action.
  • risk assessmentA structured look at what harm might happen, how likely and how serious it is, and what can be done to reduce it.
  • statutoryRequired, set up or controlled by law, for example a service that a public body must legally provide.

More terms: Child Protection and Safeguarding

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