We are pleased to share a new article published in Children and Youth Services Review, titled Place-based inequalities in children’s safeguarding referrals: A multilevel analysis of trends across English local authorities, 2013/14–2021/22.
The article is led by three University of Sheffield PhD researchers, Ella Moxon, Oliver Carlile and Beth Alice Lockwood, who are part of the Wellcome Doctoral Training Centre in Public Health Economics and Decision Science. The work developed from a placement undertaken with Calum Webb and Nathan Hughes, bringing together expertise in public health, quantitative methods, social policy and children’s social care.
Referral to children’s social care is a crucial early point in safeguarding systems. It is often the moment when concerns about a child’s safety, wellbeing or family circumstances first become visible to statutory services. Yet referral is not simply a neutral administrative step. Who makes referrals, how often they are made, and how referral patterns differ between places can reveal important inequalities in how local systems identify and respond to children and families.
Using longitudinal Department for Education data covering English local authorities between 2013/14 and 2021/22, the study examines how safeguarding referral rates have changed over time. It looks at overall rates, but also at differences by referral source, including police, schools, health services and local authority services. The analysis shows that referral rates increased over this period, with particularly marked increases in referrals from the police. It also identifies substantial variation between local authorities, suggesting that children and families may experience different routes into safeguarding systems depending on where they live.
These findings matter because they point to place-based inequalities in access to early safeguarding and support. Variation between local authorities may reflect differences in local need, but it may also reflect differences in organisational arrangements, professional practices, thresholds, service configuration and the wider context in which families live. Understanding these patterns is therefore important for developing more equitable approaches to safeguarding, commissioning and early intervention.
The article speaks directly to the interests of CIRCLE’s Children, Young People and Families theme on how inequalities and social harms become framed as questions of care and protection. By examining how referral patterns vary between places and referral sources, the study contributes to a broader agenda concerned with how local systems, thresholds and service arrangements shape children’s and families’ pathways into support.
The findings underline the importance of looking beyond national averages to understand how children’s safeguarding systems operate differently across places. This matters not only for research, but also for policy and practice: more equitable safeguarding systems depend on better evidence about where variation occurs, why it occurs, and what it means for children, families and local services.
Open access
The article is free until July 18, 2026. Find it here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740926003130?dgcid=author