Analysing repeated referrals to children’s services in England

This study seeks to ascertain the characteristics and factors underlying the propensity of children who have been referred to Children’s Services (CS) to have multiple referrals within a given time period.

Re-referrals can be costly to local authorities, but more importantly, they can be stressful and harmful to the children themselves, as well as to their parents or guardians. Potentially, multiple referrals can be detrimental to children’s development, as they may imply prolonged periods of unmet needs and recurrent episodes of abuse, neglect, maltreatment, etc. Furthermore, referred children often live in deprived and poor families (Bilson & Martin, 2016)

Children are referred to Social Services via many routes: Schools, hospitals, police, social workers, GPs, etc. Once a referral has been made, a number of children are immediately stepped down the system as needing “no further action”, when case workers deem the children as not meeting the statutory threshold for assessment. When children do meet the threshold, a statutory assessment must be carried out by the Local Authorities to determine the child’s needs. Where there are grounds to believe that a child’s safety or wellbeing is at risk, a child protection conference (CPC) is called upon. Children are either declared “in need” according to published thresholds or stepped down as needing “no longer in need”, when needs do not surpass these thresholds.

For children in need (CiN), a child protection plan (CPP) can be designed to address their needs. This CPP is later reviewed and the child’s needs are re-assessed to plan further actions. A child can be stepped down, the CPP can be revised and updated, or in extreme cases, where there are no guarantees of safety, children can be referred to be looked after (CLA).

This analysis focuses on children referred to CS during the financial year 2010-2011. This recruitment period has been chosen to ensure data quality and to maximise the follow-up period.