By Georgina Ireland, Linda Wijlaars, Matthew A Jay, Claire Grant, Rachel Pearson, Johnny Downs and Ruth Gilbert

This study aimed to determine the risk of mothers being involved in public law family court care proceedings and their social and health characteristics by analysing linked administrative family court and healthcare records. Involvement in care proceedings reflects serious concerns for the care or safety of a child. Local Authority (LA) social care departments can bring care proceedings under Section 31 of the Children Act 1989 due to concerns about significant harm, or risk of significant harm to the child attributable to care given by the parents or the child being beyond parental control. Each year, around 10,000 mothers in England are involved in care proceedings. In 80% of these proceedings, the child is placed with friends or family, unrelated foster carers, in residential care or for adoption. One fifth remain with one or both birth parents, with or without a supervision order.

Recent developments in national and regional linkages of administrative health data to family court or social services data have contributed insights into maternal health needs in Wales, Sweden and Canada, but evidence is lacking for England (5-15). Similar linked data for England would contribute new insights due to the population size, the regional and ethnic variation in England, and variability in determinants of service access and outcomes across different population subgroups. From a policy and practice perspective, evidence from linked data on the health of parents involved in family court care proceedings could inform how and when healthcare and related services could intervene to improve parental health and support, and thereby prevent or mitigate child maltreatment, and in some cases, avoid care proceedings.

Aims and objectives

This study aimed to address the evidence gap in England on the health of mothers involved in care proceedings compared with their peers. We conducted two sub-studies:

1. In the first, we studied all first-time mothers between 2007-19 in the English NHS, including those involved in care proceedings, to:

• Create a database of first-time mothers using hospital admission data, linked to care proceedings in England and assess linkage accuracy.

• Estimate the 10-year risk of care proceedings for first-time mothers in England and describe differences in maternal social and health characteristics at a first birth.

• Compare the number of births within 10 years to first-time mothers involved and not involved in care proceedings.

• Assess maternal and birth characteristics associated with recurrent care proceedings.

• Estimate differences in mortality among mothers involved and not involved in care proceedings.

2. Second, we studied mothers involved in care proceedings and other women using mental health service records in four LAs in south London to:

• Create a research database that linked records of mothers involved in care proceedings in south London to mental health service data and assess linkage accuracy.

• Compare the characteristics of mental health service use among mothers involved in care proceedings and other women using mental health services.

• Compare the risk of death among mothers involved in care proceedings with other women using mental health services.

• Evaluate patterns of mental health service use before and after start of care proceedings.

London: Nuffield Foundation, 2024. 63p.

By The Children's Commission for England...

“I think the Government should do more about protecting children on the internet. Of course, it is very hard but just educating about the dangers of the internet is not enough” – Girl, 17. A year has passed since the Online Safety Act 2023 became law. This Act, a landmark piece of legislation, was welcomed by the Children’s Commissioner, following her extensive campaigning, as an important step towards a new era of the online world: one that presented an opportunity for children to learn, play and develop there safely. One year on, the legislation has yet to be implemented and important decisions regarding what those regulations will look like remain unclear. This report illustrates the extent to which children are still experiencing harm online. It sets the Children’s Commissioner’s expectations for the future of online safety policy making, and bolder steps towards robustly protecting children online. This report draws on the responses of 253,000 children and adults to The Big Ambition: a large-scale consultation of children in England carried out between September 2023 and January 2024. 2 The survey asked a broad set of questions about their lives, and in response, children shared their views on what they think needs to change to make their lives better. One of the areas they wanted action on was online safety. Children told the Children’s Commissioner’s Office that some children are more vulnerable to online harms than others, and that a variety of content and non-content factors cause them harm online. They also shared their views on who should take responsibility and make the online world safer for them. This report sets out what they said:

London: The Children's Commissioner for England, 2024. 80p.

By Katrin Hohl

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns have provided an unprecedented opportunity to study how such situational factors affect police recorded domestic abuse. This article presents findings from a large, representative study of the effect of the introduction and lifting of lockdowns on the volume and nature of domestic abuse recorded by seven English police forces within the first 12 months of the pandemic. The results suggest that lockdowns and the pandemic context did not create the domestic abuse crisis, and that the crisis does not go away when lockdown restrictions lift. Lockdowns interact with and amplify underlying patterns of domestic abuse. Notable differences between police forces suggest that local contexts and local police force practices play a role, with implications beyond pandemic contexts.

London: Criminology & Criminal Justice, 2023, 23p.