Inequities in child protection intervention rates in England: the intersection of ethnicity and socio-economic conditions

Objectives The aim of this paper is to outline new evidence of the extent and nature of socially determined inequities in child protection intervention rates in England. The interaction of ethnicity and socio-economic... [ view full abstract ]

Objectives
The aim of this paper is to outline new evidence of the extent and nature of socially determined inequities in child protection intervention rates in England. The interaction of ethnicity and socio-economic conditions are central to understanding differences in children’s chances of being placed on a child protection plan or being looked after in out-of-home care.
Methods
This paper reports findings from a study of 10% of all children in England, living in the West Midlands on 31.3.12. Local authorities provided data on all children who were subject of child protection interventions and this was linked to other sources of administrative data on demography and deprivation. In the absence of evidence about family economic circumstances, deprivation scores for small neighbourhoods were used as a proxy measure. A descriptive statistical analysis was carried out.
Findings
A steep social gradient was seen in the proportion of children subject to child protection interventions reflecting levels of neighbourhood deprivation. This was expected. However, previous reports that Black children were over-represented in child protection interventions were shown to be a misleading simplification of a complex situation. Over-representation reflected the fact that the large majority of Black (and Asian) children in this sample lived in the most deprived 20% of neighbourhoods in England. But in these neighbourhoods Black and Asian children had much lower intervention rates than those for White children. Drilling down into the broad ethnic groupings produces evidence of further important structural inequities.
Conclusions
For too long, in England, neither ethnicity nor the socio-economic circumstances of families have been a central focus of attention either of policy makers or practitioners working in child protection. This new evidence of stark and large, intersecting socio-economic and ethnic inequities in intervention rates calls for fundamental shifts in understanding and approach and further research involving international comparisons.