Early involvement and recurrent intervention: Antenatal/postnatal contact, repeat referrals, and successive removals in Northern Ireland’s child welfare system

This project is using linked administrative data to explore antenatal and early years contact, repeat removals, and repeat referrals in Northern Ireland's child welfare system.

Background

Research has consistently shown that children from the most deprived backgrounds are at greater risk of involvement with children’s social care. International and UK studies highlight widening inequalities, with particularly steep rises for very young children entering care. In Northern Ireland, these inequalities are evident in referral, child protection, and looked-after processes, with increasing numbers of 0- to 4-year-olds entering care from the poorest areas.

Alongside this, studies in England show that many families experience repeated removals of successive children, often within short timeframes, but this has not yet been systematically examined in Northern Ireland. At the same time, high levels of repeat referral to children’s social care are known, but little is understood about which cases move from early, non-statutory contact to later statutory intervention.

This project addresses these gaps using linked administrative data to explore antenatal and early years contact, repeat removals, and repeat referrals in Northern Ireland.

Aims and key questions

This project aims to build an evidence base on early involvement with children’s social care in Northern Ireland, focusing on antenatal and postnatal contact, repeat removals, and repeat referrals.

Specifically, the project will explore the following questions:

Antenatal / early years contact

• What proportion of mothers experience antenatal and/or postnatal ( up to 2 years after birth) contact with children’s social care and what are the factors associated with this?
• What proportion of these contacts involve repeated removals of multiple children from the same mother? What are the factors associated with this, and what are the care outcomes?

Repeat referrals / statutory contact

• What is the extent of repeat interactions with children’s social care and what are the characteristics of cases that were initially assessed as not in need, or received only non-statutory support, associated with later child protection or looked-after involvement?

Care-experienced mothers

• What are the intergenerational patterns of children’s social care involvement among care-experienced mothers, and which characteristics distinguish those whose children become looked after from those with no subsequent social care contact or non-statutory involvement?

About the data

The project will use the following data:

• Child and family social work administrative data (1990–2023): SOSCARE (Business Services Organisation - BSO)
• Northern Ireland Maternity System data (2000–2023): NIMATS (BSO)
• Land and Property Services deprivation indicators (2023): LPS (BSO).

Data will be provided via the Honest Broker Service, linked at the individual and area level, and analysed securely using SPSS/Stata/R.

Potential

This project has the potential to strengthen the evidence base on how deprivation, inequality, and care experience shape child welfare interventions. The findings will provide insights to inform policy and practice, particularly in understanding the heightened vulnerability of care-experienced mothers, supporting those who experience repeat child removals, developing early intervention strategies, and guiding regional policy responses.

At least three peer-reviewed journal publications are anticipated, with dissemination through an advisory group involving the Northern Ireland Department of Health, the Health and Social Care Board, Health and Social Care Trusts, and relevant professional bodies.

The project’s impact may include informing child protection reform in Northern Ireland and contributing to UK-wide debates on poverty, inequality, vulnerability, and children’s social care.

Project details

Chief Investigator: Professor Lisa Bunting, Queen’s University Belfast

Co-Investigators: Dr Rachel Leonard

Funder: Administrative Data Research Centre (ADRC)

Duration: March 2023-March 2026

Contact: l.bunting@qub.ac.uk.