Children’s Social Care Statistics for Northern Ireland 2022/23

Date published: 19 October 2023

Children in Need

• at 31 March 2023, 22,875 children in Northern Ireland were known to Social Services as a child in need;

• some 35,503 children were referred to Social Services during 2022/23, the largest proportion of these children were referred by the Police (37%).

Child Protection Register

• at 31 March 2023, 2,171 children were named on the Child Protection Register;
• neglect and physical abuse were the main reasons for a child being on the Child Protection Register and accounted for over three quarters of all on the register (78%);
• a total of 1,384 child protection referrals were received by HSC Trusts[1];
• there were 2,153 new registrations to the Child Protection Register and 2,298 de-registrations during the year.

Children in care

• at 31 March 2023, 3,801 children and young people were in care in Northern Ireland. This was the highest number recorded since the introduction of the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995;
• some 22% of the children in care had been looked after for less than a year, with 32% looked after for five years or longer;
• just over four fifths of the children in care were in foster care placements (83%), 7% placed with parents, 6% in residential care and 4% in other placements. This was similar to previous years;
• during 2022/23 there were 980 admissions to care and 748 discharges.

Children’s residential homes

• at 30 June 2023, there were 52 Children’s Residential Homes in Northern Ireland; 44 homes were statutory and 8 were independent.
• statutory homes provided 270 places at an average of six places per home; independent homes provided 25 places at an average of three per home.

Children’s day care

• at 31 March 2023 there were 3,397 individuals/facilities registered as day care provision for children aged 12 and under in Northern Ireland. This was a 6% decrease on the previous year;
• similar to the previous year, childminders made up the largest number of day care providers followed by playgroups;
• at 31 March 2023 there were 57,482 registered places for day care in Northern Ireland representing a decrease of 3% on the previous year.

Foster Carers – experimental statistics

• at 31 March 2023, there were 2,562 HSC Trust recruited foster carers and a further 265 independent sector foster carers;
• during 2022/23, 555 households received fostering information packs from HSC Trusts; 590 initial home visits were carried out and; 398 fostering assessments were completed;
• during 2022/23, some 419 foster carers recruited by the HSC Trusts de-registered as carers.

Young people subject to Leaving Care Act – experimental statistics

• at 31 March 2023 there were 1,738 young people subject to the Care Leaving Act;
• some 56% had both a named social worker and a personal adviser;
• of those who had left care, a quarter (25%) were living in a GEM arrangement whilst 22% were living independently.

[1] Referrals in regards to children without an open social work case file.