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Infant and Pre-birth Involvement With Child Protection Across Australia

Melissa O'Donnell1,2, Fernando Lima1, Miriam Maclean1

  • 1Australian Centre for Child Protection, University of South Australia, Perth, WA, Australia.

Child Maltreatment
|June 30, 2023
PubMed

Insights

Child protection involvement is highest for infants in Australia. Prenatal and infant notifications, substantiations, and out-of-home care rates are increasing, necessitating evidence-based interventions.

Area of Science:

  • Child protection
  • Public health
  • Social welfare

Background:

  • Infants (<1 year old) represent the highest rate of child protection involvement in Australia.
  • Policies focusing on prenatal planning and targeted support are increasingly implemented.
  • There is a need to understand trends and disparities in child protection for infants.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate Australian trends in prenatal and infant child protection notifications, substantiations, and out-of-home care.
  • To assess the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander infants in these systems.
  • To provide data to inform policy and intervention effectiveness.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of Australian child protection data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (July 2012 - June 2019).
  • Univariate Poisson regression analysis to determine incidence rate ratios (IRR) and percentage change.
  • Examination of trends in prenatal notifications, infant notifications, and infant entry to out-of-home care.

Main Results:

  • A 4% annual increase in prenatal notifications across Australia (IRR: 1.04).
  • Approximately 33% of children with prenatal notifications had substantiated cases.
  • Annual increases in infant notifications (3%, IRR: 1.03) and entry to care (2%, IRR: 1.02).

Conclusions:

  • Significant increases in prenatal and infant child protection involvement necessitate further research.
  • Evidence on the effectiveness of current policies and interventions for vulnerable families is required.
  • Addressing the rising numbers requires a focus on evidence-based outcomes for children and families.

Keywords:
child maltreatmentchild protective servicesinfantslongitudinal researchpath analysisquantitative research

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