The joint report from inspectors says professionals often focus on the behaviour of older children, losing sight of their back stories and that they are vulnerable and in need of affection and support. They looked at how older children were treated by social, education, health services, and police, probation and offending teams.
The report acknowledges signs of neglect in older children may be more difficult to identify than in younger children.
It says: “When neglected children present to agencies with a range of problems, such as exhibiting offending behaviour, having suffered exploitation and/or misusing substances or having mental health difficulties or a combination of these many issues, professionals sometimes lose focus on the underlying causes of these problems.
“We found that professionals did not always look at the whole child, their history and home circumstances in order to understand presenting behaviours and risks in the context of neglect.
“The behaviour of older children must be understood in the context of trauma. They probably want to spend more time away from their neglectful home and may be more vulnerable to risks such as “going missing, offending behaviour or exploitation”.
However, parents and professionals often see only the issues in front of their eyes without taking the context of neglect into account.