PARENTS responsible for child neglect often miss out on the long-term social work support they need because of pressures on the system, a leading authority on child protection has claimed.

Professor Brigid Daniel, of the School of Applied Social Science at the University of Stirling, said research of chronic child neglect had shown social work cases had been closed too early in some instances.

Prof Daniel was speaking after the conviction of 37-year-old Kimberley Hainey for the murder of her toddler son Declan.

His mummified body was found in his cot at his Paisley home in March 2010. He had been dead for several months, and last seen alive some nine months earlier. Hainey had earlier been working with social workers and health staff to withdraw from heroin after it emerged she was using the drug while pregnant with her child.

After successfully kicking her habit, her case was closed, with a health visitor later assigned to her case.

Within less than a year, her son was dead as Hainey returned to her old lifestyle, partying and spending time at her boyfriend's flat, while her child was left at home alone, once for 48 hours.

Prof Daniel said: "What we know in cases of neglect is there is a tendency for people to need longer-term support than they often get.

"There is a pressure on the system to close cases and move on and if people show signs of improvement, some services can be withdrawn.

"They call it the revolving door, where you have cases close when what people need is a good consistent relationship with someone, whether that be a health visitor, a social worker or a school if an older child is involved."

New guidelines have been brought in by the Scottish Government to deal with large numbers of missed appointments noted by social workers and health visitors.

Hainey's own health visitor recorded seven instances of being unable to reach mother and child. It was then that Hainey's GP surgery were to report the boy as missing. Hainey told the court she saw the involvement of agencies as intrusive in her life.

This is the latest case to focus attention on the welfare of children being brought up by drug or alcohol-misusing parents.

Caleb Ness was 11 weeks old when he was shaken to death by his father in Edinburgh while his mother was picking up methadone in October 2001. Thirteen-month-old Carla-Nicole Bone was killed after months of physical abuse at the hands of her mother's partner in their home near Huntly in 2002. In 2008, Brandon Muir was killed by his mother's partner in Dundee. Both adults were heroin addicts.

In Scotland, there are around 60,000 children whose parents are drug abusers, and a further 65,000 live with alcoholic parents.

Some 18,000 are said to be at high risk from their parents' addiction or mental health problems, but not all children of parents with addiction issues will be involved with social workers.

Prof Daniel said: "It is such a widespread and prevalent issue it needs a more structured approach. What we are trying to do is pick up the pieces. We need to stop these drugs becoming so prevalent in people's lives."

The Scottish Government has made parental substance misuse a key priority, with some £28 mil-lion going into drug treatment services. Prof Daniel said communities also had a part to play in the welfare of children.

With reference to the Hainey case, Ms Daniel said: "It did take an awfully long time for the rest of the family to go round and find he was dead.

"It was when they heard that all the professionals were concerned they finally went round to have a look.

"I think there is quite a lot of discussion to be had around the general public being very unclear about what is the best thing to do (if neglect is suspected), such as who to contact or whether they are being alarmist. Yet professionals do have to rely on communities to be their eyes."

The court heard Hainey's mother had offered to give her grandson a home, but she had refused.