AQW 3436/22-27

Ms Paula Bradshaw
Alliance Party
South Belfast

Tabled Date: 22/09/2022
Answered On Date: 03/10/2022
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Health why there is currently a higher number of children on the Child Protection Register in the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust area than prior to the Pandemic, when the number is relatively stable in other Trusts.

Answer:

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department established a weekly (now monthly) temporary data collection for children’s social care services in order to monitor and respond to emerging trends. This temporary data collection uses figures from the Quarterly Child Protection Statistics for quarter ending December 2019 as a pre-COVID comparison. Whilst there are currently more children on the Child Protection Register in the Belfast Health & Social Care Trust than prior to the pandemic, when considered against historical annual trends it would appear that the pre-COVID figure is lower than average rather than the current figure being higher than average. This drop in the rate of child protection referrals was identified and drawn out in the Children’s Social Care Statistics for Northern Ireland 2019/20 annual publication. However, the reason for this drop is not known.

The Belfast Health and Social Care Trust has the second lowest number of children on the Register across the region. The average number of monthly child protection referrals is the same as the pre-covid monthly average (46) and there has been a small increase in the monthly average of child protection registrations between the pre-covid period and August 2022 i.e. 27 compared to 21.

The decision to register a child or young person on the Child Protection Register is a professional decision requiring multi-agency input and oversight through the Child Protection Case Conference process.