WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY.... BEYOND PRIVILEGE – RECOGNISING
NEGLECT IN HIGH INCOME FAMILIES Comment by ALEX DAVE, Safeguarding Education Officer at LGfL, The National Grid for Learning
N
eglect is defined by the Department for Education (DfE) 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.’ When we think
about neglect, we often associate it with children from disadvantaged or low-income backgrounds.
The stereotype of neglected children being malnourished, dirty and with ill-fitting clothes fuels this widespread bias, and can make it difficult to recognise that neglect does occur in families who appear outwardly privileged. This can lead to barriers in identifying and providing support for children from more affluent households; and presents a unique set of challenges for the professionals tasked with safeguarding. Neglect is a form of abuse defined by omission - the failure to meet a child’s basic physical, emotional or psychological needs. In affluent families these omissions are often masked by material abundance. Children may live in spacious homes, attend prestigious schools, enjoy a balanced diet, and take part in a wide range of extracurricular activities. Although, on the surface, their lives may appear ideal, these children may still experience emotional neglect - a lack of parental presence, warmth, attention or consistent care. This type of neglect, though less visible, can be as damaging as any other form of harm, and may go unnoticed due to our assumption that material comfort equals overall wellbeing.
For teachers and DSLs, recognising and addressing neglect in affluent contexts, requires awareness of these nuanced dynamics and a commitment to challenging unconscious biases.
Research by Professor Claudia Bernard (Goldsmiths, University of London) identified several common factors contributing to neglect within affluent families.
• Emotional disconnect. In high-income households, parents may have demanding careers that involve long hours or frequent travel. As a result, children can be left in the care of nannies, au pairs or boarding arrangements. While their physical needs may be met, their emotional needs can be overlooked, leading to feelings of loneliness, rejection, or low self-worth, due to a lack of consistent parental presence, warmth, or attachment.
• Pressure to succeed. Affluent families may place a strong emphasis on academic or extracurricular achievement. While ambition can be healthy, children who are constantly expected to excel, may experience overwhelming pressure, leading to chronic stress, anxiety, perfectionism and burnout. This can have a long-term impact on their emotional development, self-esteem and mental health - particularly if failure is met with criticism or emotional withdrawal.
• Parental alcohol and substance misuse. While this issue is not exclusive to any one social class, substance use in wealthy families may be more easily hidden and less likely to attract professional scrutiny. In some cases, a more permissive or laissez-faire attitude towards alcohol and drugs may be modelled to children. With greater financial means and access, young people may engage in risky behaviours earlier, without sufficient guidance or boundaries in place.
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• Domestic abuse. High-income families are not immune to coercive control or violence within the home. Where abuse occurs behind closed doors, it can be particularly well-concealed due to social status, fear of reputational damage or lack of outside scrutiny. Children exposed to domestic abuse - whether physical, emotional, or psychological - can suffer lasting harm, even if their material needs appear well met.
Bernard’s study also highlights 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 to this: • 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 with parents means support can be given at the earliest stages of concern. Colleagues should ensure concerns conveyed to parents are explicit, specific and relate to the impact on the child’s health and development, to avoid incorrect assumptions being made about what ‘neglect’ means.
• Staff training – provide opportunities for staff to explore broad examples of neglect and dispel stereotypes, to ensure staff identify neglect in all contexts and report signs and indicators of all types of neglect, including emotional.
• Explore your data. Do staff report indicators commonly associated with affluent neglect - for example, behavioural and emotional changes or concerns about how parents interact with and about the child - as readily as they do the more physical indicators associated with neglect? What does your data tell you?
• Support the child to recover – acknowledge the impact of any neglect. Schools can help children to feel safe, loved and accepted at school, and to develop skills to support emotional wellbeing.
It’s essential to reflect on the perspective we bring to conversations about neglect and to challenge any unconscious bias we may hold. Neglect occurs across all social and economic groups. Helping school staff understand this reality is key to ensuring that signs of neglect in more affluent families are recognised and reported with the same level of concern. Neglect is rarely intentional - the vast majority of parents genuinely care for their children and want the best for them. Most often it stems from a complex mix of personal, emotional or situational pressures within a family, which is why a school’s safeguarding response should be rooted in professional curiosity, compassion and support - placing the child’s wellbeing at the heart of every conversation and decision.
For free information, support and training about neglect, including specific resources about affluent neglect, visit
https://neglect.lgfl.net
September 2025
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