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BJSW Advance Access originally published online on August 15, 2005
British Journal of Social Work 2007 37(4):597-617; doi:10.1093/bjsw/bch276
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© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The British Association of Social Workers. All rights reserved.

Children Starting to be Looked After by Local Authorities in England: An Analysis of Inter-authority Variation and Case-centred Decision Making

Jonathan Dickens, Darren Howell, June Thoburn and Gillian Schofield

The authors are members of the Centre for Research on the Child and Family, based in the School of Social Work and Psychosocial Sciences at the University of East Anglia.

Jonathan Dickens is a Lecturer in Social Work. His research interests include child care law and the development of social work in its wider social policy and international contexts.

Darren Howell was the Senior Research Associate for the study reported in this paper.

Dr June Thoburn is Professor of Social Work and former Director of the Centre. Her research interests are in family placement and the family support and child protection provisions of the 1989 Children Act.

Dr Gillian Schofield is a Senior Lecturer in Psychosocial Sciences and Co-Director of the Centre. Her research interests are in attachment, resilience and family placement.

Correspondence to Jonathan Dickens, Centre for Research on the Child and Family, Elizabeth Fry Building, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK. E-mail: j.dickens{at}uea.ac.uk

This paper presents findings from a study of children looked after by 24 local authorities in England. The study combined analysis of key statistical data with a questionnaire survey completed by the social workers for a sub-sample of the children. This paper focuses on children who started a period of being looked after in the participating authorities during the 6 months from October 2000 to March 2001. The study found considerable variation between the authorities in their rates of children starting to be looked after, and the paper explores reasons for these differences. It also highlights the variety of legal routes and placement options used for children entering the looked after system, and proposes a matrix that summarizes the various combinations that the authorities were found to be using. The matrix can assist social workers and their managers in identifying the most appropriate option for individual children.

Keywords: Looked after children, variation between local authorities, legal and placement options for children starting to be looked after


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C. Pritchard and R. Williams
Does Social Work Make a Difference?: A Controlled Study of Former `Looked-After-Children' and `Excluded-From-School' Adolescents Now Men Aged 16--24 Subsequent Offences, Being Victims of Crime and Suicide
Journal of Social Work, July 1, 2009; 9(3): 285 - 307.
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