Children with disabilities are 3.7 times more likely than other children to be abused or neglected. Sometimes this is because of high care needs, increased vulnerability or the range of other factors that affect other children. Parenting children with disabilities comes with additional stresses or challenges, which can heighten the potential for abuse or neglect, especially in the context of a society where there remains much prejudice and barriers to disabled children and their families. Similar factors affect young people experiencing mental health conditions. Professionals can sometimes miss signs of abuse due to the complexity of young people’s needs, an acceptance of things being how they are, or allowing their recognition of the challenges facing parents to cloud their judgement leading to abuse or neglect being under-reported.
Specific Risks for Children with Additional Needs
Children with additional needs (including SEND) are at increased risk of abuse and neglect and sometimes indications of abuse are harder to identify.
Definition
“A child of compulsory school age or a young person has a learning difficulty or disability if he or she:
- has a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age, or
- has a disability which prevents or hinders him or her from making use of facilities of a kind generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream schools or mainstream post-16 institutions.”
Mental health problems range from the worries we all experience as part of everyday life to serious long-term conditions. The majority of people who experience mental health problems can get over them or learn to live with them, especially if they get help early on.

Children have a wide range of needs and this section considers children with a formal diagnosis or condition, as well as where issues are apparent but there is no formal diagnosis. These children are at greater risk of abuse or neglect and the barriers to identifying and intervening are also higher. It is therefore important that we maintain an open mind about what we are seeing, and as suggested by Lord Laming, maintain a professional curiosity. For example:
- not accepting that an injury is a result of the needs of the child, but instead consider what other causes there may be and what the evidence suggests.
- considering a behaviour such as self-harm as possibly being indicative of abuse.
- recognising the potential for fabricated or induced illness
It is important that there are also clear lines of communication between all involved in the child’s care so that concerns can be discussed and referred as necessary.
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- Training resources for DSLs to use in team meetings
- Reference documents for additional information
- Handout for staff summarising specific risks for children with additional needs
- Quiz to test staff understanding