Understanding healthcare patterns among children in social care
Categories: Research using linked data, Datasets, ADR England, Office for National Statistics, Children & young people, Health & wellbeing, Inequality & social inclusion
24 February 2025
As part of the ADR England Research Community Catalyst for Children at Risk of Poor Outcomes, a new research project aims to uncover novel insights into how children in social care use healthcare services.
Led by a research fellow from the Education and Child Health Outcomes from Linked Data (ECHILD) team at University College London, this study forms part of a broader effort to fill key knowledge gaps in children’s social care. It follows the publication of a scoping review, stakeholder consultation, and research agenda.
The fellow will work alongside Professor Katie Harron, a Co-Investigator of the Community Catalyst and lead on the ECHILD project, as well as the wider Community Catalyst team.
Introducing the research
This research aligns with the research agenda’s recommendation to deliver cross-sectoral evidence by integrating social care and healthcare data. It also responds to stakeholders' call for a more holistic understanding of children’s experiences, offering insights into service effectiveness and patterns of healthcare engagement over the life course.
Specifically, the research will examine healthcare use among children in contact with children’s social care services — namely, children classed as children in need, those under Child Protection Plans, and children looked after. It will describe their usage in the two years before and after they receive their initial social care status, using health data from the ECHILD dataset. This links de-identified administrative data from hospitals, schools, and social care services for around 20 million children and young people.
The research will:
- describe different groups of children and examine their healthcare usage, including inpatient admissions, A&E attendances, number and type of diagnoses, and outpatient appointments
- focus on the two years before and after key social care events: being assessed as a child in need by children’s social care services, the first instance of having a Child Protection Plan, or the first placement as a child looked after
- identify clusters of healthcare use, and explore the characteristics associated with these patterns.
It is expected that the full results and reports will be available by late 2025.
