Background: Taking children into state care for reasons of abuse or welfare presents social workers with a number of challenges. The system operates under the principle that children should be maintained or reunited with their families. However, little is known about the amount of time children are likely to spend in care, once they have entered care in Ireland, or about the nature of the placements they are likely to have. Social workers do not have such practice based evidence to support their decision making and planning of care pathways for children and for their work with families.
The aim of this research was to examine factors associated with the amount of time spent in care, and placement movements, once a child was admitted to residential or foster care.
Methods: This research is based on a retrospective cohort study of all children, aged between 0 and 18 years, who had foster or residential care placements for reasons of abuse or welfare, in a southern region of Ireland, any time between 2002 and 2012. The region has 5 of the 32 Social Work Departments in the Country serving 14% of the total child population (163,388 and 1,148,687) and 15% of the adult population (501,146 and 3,439,565). The social work departments operate common national policy under a single governance structure.
Primary data relating to their entire history in care up to this time period was extracted from a regional administrative data base. This data was matched to street level deprivation scores compiled using census data (HP), adding information on socio-economic factors to the research data.
Multiple regression analysis was applied to examine independent factors (1) associated with placement frequency and moves. Event history analysis was used to explore unique child related factors (2) and area related factors (3) associated with total amount of time in care, and number of placements for children on whom there was 16 years follow up.
Findings: This paper will present the results of this original research and outline the methodological strengths and challenges of using administrative records as a basis for research to support social work practice and policy development. The research forms the basis for international comparisons.
(1) age at first admission, gender, deprivation score, social work department, family type, reason for care, legal basis of care
(2) age at first admission, gender, family type, deprivation score
(3) geographical location of social work team (urban / rural);
Family foster care and adoption , Residential child care
