Examining the intersection of child protection and public housing: development, health and justice outcomes using
Catia Malvaso1,2, Alicia Montgomerie3, Rhiannon Megan Pilkington3
1BetterStart Health and Development Research, School of Public Health, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia catia.malvaso@adelaide.edu.au.
Insights
Over 60% of children in South Australia involved with child protection also used public housing. These children faced higher health and justice system contact, and developmental vulnerability.
Area of Science:
- Public health
- Child welfare
- Socioeconomic determinants of health
Background:
- Children in contact with child protection services often face complex challenges.
- Public housing is a critical support system for vulnerable families.
- Understanding the intersection of these systems is vital for improving child outcomes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine the developmental, health, and justice system outcomes for children with dual contact with child protection and public housing systems.
- To identify the extent of overlap between child protection and public housing involvement in South Australia.
- To analyze the life trajectories of children known to both systems.
Main Methods:
- Descriptive analysis of linked administrative data from the South Australian (SA) Better Evidence Better Outcomes Linked Data (BEBOLD) platform.
- Inclusion of birth registrations, perinatal, child protection, public housing, hospital, emergency department, early education, and youth justice records.
- Study population: SA children born 1999-2013, followed until 2016, with base population of 67,454 children notified to child protection.
Main Results:
- Over 60% of children with child protection contact also had public housing contact.
- Of those in both systems, 60.2% were known to housing first.
- Children in both systems had higher rates of hospitalizations, emergency department visits, developmental vulnerability, and were six times more likely to have youth justice contact.
Conclusions:
- There is substantial overlap between child protection and public housing involvement in South Australia.
- Dual system involvement is associated with poorer health, developmental, and justice system outcomes.
- Improving support infrastructure for families in public housing may prevent child protection contact and improve life trajectories.
Objective:
We described development, health and justice system outcomes for children in contact with child protection and public housing.
Design:
Descriptive analysis of outcomes for children known to child protection who also had contact with public housing drawn from the South Australian (SA) Better Evidence Better Outcomes Linked Data (BEBOLD) platform.
Setting:
The BEBOLD platform holds linked administrative records collected by government agencies for whole-population successive birth cohorts in SA beginning in 1999.
Participants:
This study included data from birth registrations, perinatal, child protection, public housing, hospital, emergency department, early education and youth justice for all SA children born 1999-2013 and followed until 2016. The base population notified at least once to child protection was n=67 454.
Primary Outcome Measure:
Contact with the public housing system.
Secondary Outcome Measures:
Hospitalisations and emergency department presentations before age 5, and early education at age 5, and youth justice contact before age 17.
Results:
More than 60% of children with at least one notification to child protection had contact with public housing, and 60.2% of those known to both systems were known to housing first. Children known to both systems experienced more emergency department and hospitalisation contacts, greater developmental vulnerability and were about six times more likely to have youth justice system contact.
Conclusions:
There is substantial overlap between involvement with child protection and public housing in SA. Those children are more likely to face a life trajectory characterised by greater contact with the health system, greater early life developmental vulnerability and greater contact with the criminal justice system. Ensuring the highest quality of supportive early life infrastructure for families in public housing may contribute to prevention of contact with child protection and better life trajectories for children.
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