Following reports of neglect, the D.C.F.
The agency had received reports of neglect and abuse involving the family in the preceding year.
The two lawmakers said they had received reports of neglect and mistreatment in detention facilities.
Instead of dismissing reports of neglect and abuse -- as clearly happened in the starvation case -- caseworkers would be required to check out accusations and take specific actions.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has said he is 'disgusted and appalled' by reports of neglect at a hospital in Worcestershire where a man died of starvation.
Media reports of neglect in privatised homes for the elderly cast a shadow on the government's other efforts to privatise parts of the welfare state.
An internal investigation in 1996 uncovered evidence that a caseworker had failed to check repeated reports of neglect, and that another examined the wrong child during a home visit.
Her mother, Carla Lockwood, was imprisoned on murder charges in what was determined to be a starvation death, and the city child welfare agency came under fire for failing to respond adequately to reports of neglect at the Lockwood home.
Child abuse: The status of a child who is homeless, or an "unaccompanied minor," is not sufficient to trigger laws that require the reporting of neglect or child abuse.
