Research focused on the families of 349 children under 8 years of age who were referred to three social services departments because of child protection concerns and 363 who were referred to a service but who did not, at least initially, arrive with a "child protection" label. Initial assessment of the families of children referred because of concerns about emotional abuse and neglect tended to be low-key and to concentrate on "risks" rather than on the needs of the children. An opportunity was thus missed to differentiate between those families who would be able to meet the needs of children without the provision of services and those in which the health and welfare of the children would be likely to deteriorate without further assessment and help. The early decisions by team leaders in respect to this group of families most often resulted in a low level of service provision. Tables, figure, notes, references