Child neglect poses many issues for social work, notably in terms of effective assessment leading to informed intervention targeting the needs of children and families. In response to this challenge, our multiphase research project is developing a new multiagency child neglect measurement tool. The phase of the project reported in this article administered an online survey via Qualtrics to explore the views of children and families social workers on assessing child neglect. One hundred and twenty-nine completed responses were received from registered children and families social workers in England and Wales. The main findings are that social workers are regularly undertaking child neglect assessments and feel relatively confident in completing them. They also feel relatively confident that their assessments are inclusive of social harms such as poverty and social isolation, but less confident they are accurate and informed by research evidence. Almost two-thirds are using a child neglect assessment tool, but they lack confidence in these accurately assessing neglect or being quick and simple to use. The findings illustrate that social workers require both the work conditions and tools to use in which they feel confident to undertake balanced and accurate assessments of child neglect.

中文翻译：

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探索社会工作者对英格兰和威尔士儿童忽视评估的看法

儿童忽视给社会工作带来了许多问题，特别是在有效评估方面，从而针对儿童和家庭的需求进行知情干预。为了应对这一挑战，我们的多阶段研究项目正在开发一种新的多机构儿童忽视测量工具。本文报告的项目阶段通过 Qualtrics 进行了一项在线调查，以探讨儿童和家庭社会工作者对评估儿童忽视问题的看法。我们收到了来自英格兰和威尔士注册儿童和家庭社会工作者的 129 份完整回复。主要调查结果是，社会工作者定期进行儿童忽视评估，并对完成这些评估感到相对有信心。他们还相对有信心自己的评估涵盖了贫困和社会孤立等社会危害，但不太相信自己的评估是否准确且有研究证据支持。近三分之二的人正在使用儿童忽视评估工具，但他们对这些工具能否准确评估忽视或快速简单地使用缺乏信心。研究结果表明，社会工作者需要有信心对儿童忽视问题进行平衡和准确的评估的工作条件和工具。