Trauma informed care (TIC) is a whole system organisational change process which emerged from the seminal Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study, establishing a strong graded relationship between the number of childhood adversities experienced and a range of negative outcomes across multiple domains over the life course. To date, there has been no systematic review of organisation-wide implementation initiatives in the child welfare system. As part of a wider cross-system rapid evidence review of the trauma-informed implementation literature using systematic search, screening and review procedures, twenty-one papers reporting on trauma-informed implementation in the child welfare system at state/regional and organisational/agency levels were identified. This paper presents a narrative synthesis of the various implementation strategies and components used across child welfare initiatives, with associated evidence of effectiveness. Training was the TIC implementation component most frequently evaluated with all studies reporting positive impact on staff knowledge, skills and/or confidence. The development of trauma-informed screening processes, and evidence-based treatments/trauma focused services, where evaluated, all produced positive results. Whilst weaknesses in study design often limited generalisability, there was preliminary evidence for the efficacy of trauma-informed approaches in improving the mental and emotional well-being of children served by community-based child welfare services, as well as their potential for reducing caregiver stress and improving placement stability.

Few studies have examined the interaction of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and positive childhood experiences (PCEs) with mental health outcomes in nationally representative European populations. The primary objective was to test models of resilience through investigating associations between ACEs and PCEs and young people's risk of common mood and anxiety disorders, self-harm and suicidal ideation. Data were from the Northern Ireland Youth Wellbeing Survey (NIYWS), a stratified random probability household survey conducted between June 2019 and March 2020. Analysis is based on data from adolescents aged 11-19 years (n = 1299). Logistic regression was used to test the direct effects of ACEs and PCEs on mental health outcomes and the moderating effect of PCEs at different levels of ACE exposure. Prevalence rates of mental health outcomes were: common mood and anxiety disorders (16 %); self-harm (10 %); suicidal ideation (12 %). ACEs and PCEs both independently predicted common mood and anxiety disorders, self-harm and suicidal ideation. Every additional ACE increased the likelihood of a common mood and anxiety disorder (81 %), self-harm (88 %) and suicidal ideation (88 %). Every additional PCE reduced common mood and anxiety disorders (14 %), self-harm (13 %) and suicidal ideation (7 %). There was no moderating effect of PCEs on ACEs and mental health outcomes. The findings suggest that PCEs act largely independently of ACEs and that initiatives to increase PCEs can assist in the prevention of mental health problems.

Although numerous international studies point to large variations in child welfare interventions, comparative analysis has tended to focus either solely on England or the UK as a whole, discounting differences across the four UK countries. This paper compares trends in national statistics relating to the operation of child protection systems across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland between 2004/05 and 2013/14. Despite a number of legislative, operational and definitional differences between nations, a number of trends are apparent. All systems show an increasing orientation towards child protection as evidenced by rising rates of child protection investigation and children subject to child protection planning. Increasingly, this relates to emotional abuse and involves younger children aged from birth to four years. However, the way cases are processed can differ, with only one in ten referrals resulting in a child protection investigation in Northern Ireland compared to one in five in England. Potential reasons for these differences are discussed and questions raised as to why, more than a quarter-century after the introduction of the 1989 Children Act, we still have no clear picture of the circumstances of families who come into contact with social services or the services provided to support them.

The relationship between deprivation and health and educational inequalities has been well evidenced in the literature. Recent UK research has now established a similar social gradient in child welfare interventions (Bywaters et al. 2018) with children living in the most deprived areas in the UK facing a much higher chance of being placed on the child protection register or in out-of-home care. There is an emerging narrative that poverty has become the wallpaper of practice, “too big to tackle and too familiar to notice” (Morris et al. 2018) and invisible amid lack of public support and political will to increase welfare spending. This paper will examine poverty-related inequalities and how these affect families. It will discuss the importance of recognising that poverty is a social justice issue and a core task for social work and outline the range of supports that may be available for families to help lift them out of poverty. Finally, it will describe the development of a new practice framework for social work in Northern Ireland that challenges social workers to embed anti-poverty approaches in their practice. The framework emphasises that poverty is a social justice issue, seeks to provide practical support and guidance to re-focus attention, debate, and action on poverty in times of global economic uncertainty and give social workers the tools to make it central to their practice once again. It reinforces the need for social workers to understand and acknowledge the impact of poverty, and to advocate for and support those most in need. It aims to challenge and empower professionals to tackle poverty and inequality as an aspect of ethical and effective practice.

The practice of extended family and friends helping to care for children when their parents are unable to is an enduring tradition in many cultures. Kinship care provides the largest proportion of out of home care in Western society but many of these carers experience poverty and deprivation, and do not receive comparable levels of support, financial or professional, to other placement types. This study provides UK evidence for the relationship between kinship care and deprivation and examines how the welfare state frames kinship care in policy and practice.