The incidence of twins in care

The birth of twins, triplets or more is usually a reason for great celebration. Evidence suggests, however, that in some circumstances a multiple birth creates serious difficulties for parents and may cause enormous stress within a family. One crude indicator of family breakdown is the reception of children into Local Authority care: during 1988, the author attempted to establish the incidence of twins in care (or on social workers' caseloads where preventive work was being done) by gathering figures from Directors of Social Services in Local Authorities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Whilst analysis of the figures at first suggests that there is no over-representation of 'multiples' in Local Authority care, it is suggested that the results of the first survey should be treated with caution. The majority of Local Authorities have not so far identified twins, etc., on their records (nor, indeed, has the Department of Social Services) and so identification had to be done on a 'common surname and date of birth' basis, where that was possible. Many single twins would thus be missed. Only 36% of Local Authorities were able to provide complete figures for sets of twins in care. Reliable data for the incidence of twins on social workers' caseloads (children not in care) proved impossible to collect. Information about multiples should be much easier to obtain in the future. Many Local Authorities are now installing or operating computer systems. Over half of those Directors who could not provide figures at the moment indicated that they would be able to do so on a future occasion.