Social Work Interventions in Northern Ireland Before the Age of Five

This study provides the first population-level estimates of children’s social care involvement before the age of five in Northern Ireland, using Freedom of Information data from all Health and Social Care Trusts. Over one in five children were referred to services and nearly one in six became designated as in need. While Northern Ireland conducts fewer investigations than England, a higher proportion lead to child protection registration, suggesting more selective use of investigative powers. Previous research shows these interventions are steeply patterned by deprivation and this study estimated that almost a third of children in the most deprived decile would become a child in need before they are five.To interpret these findings, the study incorporated the perspectives of coauthors with lived experience. They described involvement with children’s services as characterised by scrutiny and fear rather than support, particularly when seeking help for stress or material hardship. Their accounts illustrate how routine deprivation can be treated as risk, and how intervention can reproduce rather than alleviate inequalities. We argue that reform requires shifting the purpose of early intervention from surveillance to support, addressing material deprivation as a safeguarding issue, and embedding relational, community and peer-led approaches grounded in trust.