Born into care: Evidence of a failed state
The researchers used freedom-of-information data to examine entry into care during the first week of life in England between 2007 and 2017. Including voluntary placements produced a higher count than earlier research. Rates rose and varied between local authorities; larger increases were associated with deprivation and poorer inspection ratings. The authors connected increasing newborn entry to care with adoption rates. This concerns pathways into the adoption system, rather than adoptees’ later experiences.
Limitations: Local-authority administrative data do not provide adoptees’ own accounts. Entry into care does not always lead to adoption. Area-level associations cannot establish individual causes or show that care removal itself caused the reported patterns.
- Research type
- Administrative data analysis
- Source reviewed
- Abstract
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Age group
- Children
Study context and review
Age group as recorded: children
Adoption context: Adoption from care / adoption system
Programme: Not recorded
Institutional context: No relationship identified in the material checked
No adoption-sector organisational relationship identified from metadata reviewed. Funding and conflicts were not comprehensively audited; this is not confirmation of institutional independence.
Bibliographic screening. Bibliographic relationships are not a bias or safety rating.
Topics: administrative data, adoption from care, adoption system
Review scope: Source checked: Abstract. This does not imply full-text or independent human verification.
Country as recorded: England
- Funding
- Not yet checked for this entry
- Commissioner
- Not yet checked for this entry
- Funder role
- Not yet checked for this entry
- Declared conflicts
- Not yet checked for this entry
- Recruitment
- Not yet checked for this entry
- Adoptee involvement
- Not yet checked for this entry
Entry: study_9e8722be0cd9051e