Lack of proper care (7)
I believe the answer is:
neglect
'lack of proper care' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
This is all the clue.
(Other definitions for neglect that I've seen before include "Heedlessness" , "Disregard or fail to care for" , "Disuse" , "Fail to notice or care for" , "Insufficiently attend to" .)