4.2 The Concept of Significant Harm

The Concept of Significant Harm

Some children are in need because they are suffering, or likely to suffer, significant harm. The Children Act 1989 introduced the concept of significant harm as the threshold that justifies compulsory intervention in family life in the best interests of children, and gives local authorities a duty to make enquiries (Section 47) to decide whether they should take action to safeguard or promote the welfare of a child who is suffering, or likely to suffer, significant harm.

Additionally, a Court may only make a Care Order or Supervision Order in respect of a child if it is satisfied that:

• The child is suffering, or is likely to suffer, significant harm; and
• The harm, or likelihood of harm, is attributable to a lack of adequate parental care or control (Section 31).

In addition, 'harm' is defined as the ill treatment or impairment of health and development. Harm can be determined 'significant' by "comparing a child's health and development with what might be reasonably expected of a similar child" (Children Act 1989).

There are no absolute criteria on which to rely when judging what constitutes significant harm. Consideration of the severity of ill-treatment may include the degree and the extent of physical harm, the duration and frequency of abuse and neglect, the extent of premeditation, and the presence or degree of threat, coercion, sadism and bizarre or unusual elements.

Each of these elements has been associated with more severe effects on the child, and/or relatively greater difficulty in helping the child overcome the adverse impact of the maltreatment.

Sometimes, a single traumatic event may constitute significant harm (e.g. a violent assault, suffocation or poisoning). More often, significant harm is a compilation of significant events, both acute and longstanding, which interrupt, change or damage the child's physical and psychological development.

Some children live in family and social circumstances where their health and development are neglected. For them, it is the corrosiveness of long-term neglect, emotional, physical or sexual abuse that causes impairment to the extent of constituting significant harm.

Sometimes 'significant harm' refers to harm caused by one child to another (which may be a single event or a range of ill treatment), which is generally referred to as 'child-on-child abuse'.

Some children have pre-existing vulnerabilities which may make them more susceptible to further and ongoing abuse. Children with learning difficulties, mental health challenges and who are socially isolated are more likely to be victims of online abuse and may find it difficult to disclose what is happening to them.