Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1893/25822
Appears in Collections:Faculty of Social Sciences Journal Articles
Peer Review Status: Refereed
Title: Inequalities in English child protection practice under austerity: A universal challenge?
Author(s): Bywaters, Paul
Brady, Geraldine
Bunting, Lisa
Daniel, Brigid
Featherstone, Brid
Jones, Chantel
Morris, Kate
Scourfield, Jonathan
Sparks, Tim
Webb, Calum
Contact Email: BDaniel@qmu.ac.uk
Keywords: child protection
child welfare
looked-after children
poverty
Issue Date: Feb-2018
Date Deposited: 8-Aug-2017
Citation: Bywaters P, Brady G, Bunting L, Daniel B, Featherstone B, Jones C, Morris K, Scourfield J, Sparks T & Webb C (2018) Inequalities in English child protection practice under austerity: A universal challenge?. Child and Family Social Work, 23 (1), pp. 53-61. https://doi.org/10.1111/cfs.12383
Abstract: The role that area deprivation, family poverty, and austerity policies play in the demand for and supply of children's services has been a contested issue in England in recent years. These relationships have begun to be explored through the concept of inequalities in child welfare, in parallel to the established fields of inequalities in education and health. This article focuses on the relationship between economic inequality and out-of-home care and child protection interventions. The work scales up a pilot study in the West Midlands to an all-England sample, representative of English regions and different levels of deprivation at a local authority (LA) level. The analysis evidences a strong relationship between deprivation and intervention rates and large inequalities between ethnic categories. There is further evidence of the inverse intervention law (Bywaters et al., 2015): For any given level of neighbourhood deprivation, higher rates of child welfare interventions are found in LAs that are less deprived overall. These patterns are taking place in the context of cuts in spending on English children's services between 2010–2011 and 2014–2015 that have been greatest in more deprived LAs. Implications for policy and practice to reduce such inequalities are suggested.
DOI Link: 10.1111/cfs.12383
Rights: This item has been embargoed for a period. During the embargo please use the Request a Copy feature at the foot of the Repository record to request a copy directly from the author. You can only request a copy if you wish to use this work for your own research or private study. This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Bywaters P, Brady G, Bunting L, et al. Inequalities in English child protection practice under austerity: A universal challenge? Child & Family Social Work. 2018;23:53–61, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/cfs.12383. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.

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