Untangling child welfare inequalities and the ‘Inverse Intervention Law’ in England

Webb, Calum, Bywaters, Paul, Scourfield, Jonathan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6218-8158, McCartan, Claire, Bunting, Lisa, Davidson, Gavin and Morris, Kate 2020. Untangling child welfare inequalities and the ‘Inverse Intervention Law’ in England. Children and Youth Services Review 111 , 104849. 10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.104849

Preview

PDF - Accepted Post-Print Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives. Download (652kB) | Preview

Abstract

This article addresses some potential limitations of key findings from recent research into inequalities in children’s social services by providing additional evidence from multilevel models that suggest the socioeconomic social gradient and ‘Inverse Intervention Law’ in children’s services interventions are statistically significant after controlling for possible confounding spatial and population effects. Multilevel negative binomial regression models are presented using English child welfare data to predict the following intervention rates at lower super output area-level: Child in Need (n = 2707, middle super output area [MSOA] n = 543, local authority [LA] n = 13); Child Protection Plan (n = 4115, MSOA n = 837, LA n = 18); and Children Looked After (n = 4115, MSOA n = 837, LA n = 18). We find strong evidence supporting the existence of a steep socioeconomic social gradient in child welfare interventions. Furthermore, we find certain local authority contexts exacerbate this social gradient. Contexts of low overall deprivation and high income inequality are associated with greater socioeconomic inequalities in neighbourhood intervention rates. The relationship between neighbourhood deprivation and children looked after rates is almost five times stronger in local authorities with these characteristics than it is in local authorities with high overall deprivation and low income inequality. We argue that social policy responses addressing structural determinants of child welfare inequalities are needed, and that strategies to reduce the numbers of children taken into care must address underlying poverty and income inequality at both a local and national level.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Social Sciences (Includes Criminology and Education)
Publisher:	Elsevier
ISSN:	0190-7409
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	13 March 2020
Date of Acceptance:	9 February 2020
Last Modified:	17 Nov 2024 06:30
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/130411

Citation Data

Cited 14 times in Scopus. View in Scopus. Powered By Scopus® Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item