A Longitudinal Study of Children Reported to the Child Protection Department in Western Australia

Bilson, Andy; Cant, Rosemary L.; Harries, Maria; Thorpe, David

doi:10.1093/bjsw/bct164

Cited by 32 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…A growing body of research across what have become known as Anglophone countries with similar systems (Lonne et al, 2009) suggests that there has been a considerable increase in the numbers of families experiencing investigations for suspected abuse in the last decades (Bilson et al, 2015, Devine and Parker, 2015, Trocme et al, 2014. Further interrogation suggests that the vast majority of such investigations do not uncover actual abuse and/or result in help being offered to families (Trocme et al, 2014).…”

Section: Are We Looking In the Right Places Or At The Right Issues?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Let’s stop feeding the risk monster: towards a social model of ‘child protection’

Featherstone

Gupta

Morris

et al. 2018

Families, Relationships and Societies

105

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This article explores how the child protection system currently operates in England. It analyses how policy and practice has developed, and articulates the need for an alternative approach. It draws from the social model as applied in the fields of disability and mental health, to begin to sketch out more hopeful and progressive possibilities for children, families and communities. The social model specifically draws attention to the economic, environmental and cultural barriers faced by people with differing levels of (dis)ability, but has not been used to think about ‘child protection’, an area of work in England that is dominated by a focus on risk and risk aversion. This area has paid limited attention to the barriers to ensuring children and young people are cared for safely within families and communities, and the social determinants of much of the harms they experience have not been recognised because of the focus on individualised risk factors.

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Section: Are We Looking In the Right Places Or At The Right Issues?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Let’s stop feeding the risk monster: towards a social model of ‘child protection’

Featherstone

Gupta

Morris

et al. 2018

Families, Relationships and Societies

105

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…This increasing trend, in which over 60% of investigations do not find that children are suffering or likely to suffer significant harm, is increasing the stress on and causing harm to a growing number of families and simultaneously reducing the likelihood that these children receive help. This trend of an increasing involvement of children in the child protection system is seen in a number of countries (Bilson et al, 2015;Munro and Manful, 2012) where the broadening of criteria from maltreatment to responding to children's well-being leads to more investigations (e.g. Trocmé et al, 2014;Bilson et al, 2016) and children entering state care (Gilbert et al, 2011;Bilson et al, 2016).…”

Section: Child Protection Processmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Across Australia statistics from client information systems and longitudinal studies have shown referral rates to the child protection system before the age of 18 to be around 1 in 4 children in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria (Scott, 2014 p. 16) with the lowest published ratio being 1 in 8 in (Bilson et al, 2015). A study undertaken in California (Magruder and Shaw, 2008, p. 178 ) found that 19.8% of children were reported before the age of 7.…”

Section: Longitudinal Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Referrals and Child Protection in England: One in Five Children Referred to Children’s Services and One in Nineteen Investigated before the Age of Five

Bilson

Martin

2016

Br J Soc Work

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Based on a Freedom of Information request with data from 75% of all English children's services departments covering over ½ million children, this paper shows that 22.5% of children born in the 2009-10 financial year were referred to children's social care before their fifth birthday. Three-quarters of them were at some point assessed; almost two-thirds found to be in need; and a quarter formally investigated. These findings show the full extent of children's involvement in children's social care before the age of five. One in every 9 children born in 2009-10 was suspected by social workers of being abused and this high level of involvement is only justifiable if it is demonstrably reducing harm and promoting well-being of children -an outcome which is contested. Early Help's introduction was associated with high proportions of children being referred and assessed and rapidly increasing numbers of investigations thus questioning its ability to prevent entry to the child protection system. The paper calls for a change from the current emphasis on individualised and investigative approaches to child protection in order to provide an effective and humane response to children, the majority of whom live in families affected by high levels of deprivation and poverty. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 IntroductionDespite statistics on safeguarding being collected in England for many years, numerous inquiries, and decades of research there has never been information published at a national level to show how many children are involved in the system over their lifetime. This paper reports on a freedom of information (FoI) request that gathered data from 75% of all local authorities (LAs) in England covering over half a million children, 80% of all those born in the 2009-10 financial year. It provides, for the first time, information on how many children were referred to children's services before reaching the age of five. It also shows how many were formally assessed; suspected of abuse; subject to a child protection investigation; on a child protection plan; and entered care. More than one in five of all children were referred and many progressed deeper into the formal child protection system. Given the shame and fear that accusations of abuse can cause (Gibson 2013) this high level of involvement is only justifiable if it is demonstrably reducing harm and promoting well-being of children -a goal which is certainly contested (Edwards et al., 2015; Featherstone, White and Morris, 2014a; Frost and Parton, 2009; Gilbert et al., 2012).The FoI request shows that this information on numbers of children involved in the safeguarding system over 5 years is easily produced. The fact that such important information has, until now, been unavailable is an indication of how research agendas and policy making in many cases have been f...

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“…) and, in Australia, about rates of intervention and outcomes for children from the majority and indigenous populations (Bilson et al . ). In Britain, too, racial ‘disproportionality’ has been the focus of some attention.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Child welfare systems internationally exhibit very large inequalities in a variety of respects (Bilson et al . ; Bywaters ; Bywaters et al . ; Eckenrode et al .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inequalities in child welfare intervention rates: the intersection of deprivation and identity

Bywaters

Brady

Sparks

et al. 2014

Child & Family Social Work

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A B S T R AC TChild welfare systems internationally exhibit very large inequalities in a variety of dimensions of practice, for example, in rates of child protection plans or registrations and out-of-home care. Previous research in the midlands region of England (Bywaters; Bywaters et al.) has detailed key aspects of the relationship between levels of neighbourhood deprivation and intervention rates. This paper reports further evidence from the study examining the intersection of deprivation with aspects of identity: gender, disability, ethnicity and age. Key findings include a decreasing gender gap and a decreasing proportion of children in need reported to be disabled as deprivation increases. The data challenge the perception that black children are more likely than white to be in out-of-home care, a finding that only holds if the much higher level of deprivation among black children is not taken into account. Similarly, after controlling for deprivation and age, Asian children were found to be up to six times less likely to be in out-of-home care. The study requires replication and extension in order that observed inequalities are tested and explained. Urgent ethical, research, policy and practice issues are raised about child welfare systems.

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A Longitudinal Study of Children Reported to the Child Protection Department in Western Australia

Cited by 32 publications

References 27 publications

Let’s stop feeding the risk monster: towards a social model of ‘child protection’

Let’s stop feeding the risk monster: towards a social model of ‘child protection’

Referrals and Child Protection in England: One in Five Children Referred to Children’s Services and One in Nineteen Investigated before the Age of Five

Inequalities in child welfare intervention rates: the intersection of deprivation and identity

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