Identifying and understanding inequalities in child welfare intervention rates: quantitative evidence from a comparison of the four UK countries

Abstract

This is the working paper for the journal article that was later published under a different title. See: Bywaters P, Scourfield J, Jones C, Sparks T, Elliott M, Hooper J, McCartan C, Shapira M, Bunting L & Daniel B (2020) Child welfare inequalities in the four nations of the UK. Journal of Social Work, 20 (2), pp. 193-215. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468017318793479 With full-text available from: http://hdl.handle.net/1893/27484 First paragraph: In the public health field, much attention has been paid to measuring and analysing differences in mortality and morbidity between and within countries. While recognising problems in ensuring that data is genuinely comparable between and within different countries, sufficient convergence is managed through the WHO Global Health Observatory for data on over 1000 indicators of population health to be gathered from 194 countries (http://www.who.int/gho/en/). There is a substantial body of work that underpins judgements about relative rates of sickness and death and discussions of contributory causal factors. It supports a focus on understanding and combatting both underlying and more immediate causes of health inequalities (WHO, 2008). Reducing health inequalities is seen as an essential element for maximising the health of populations (Acheson 1998; Marmot 2010).