ABSTRACT
This chapter considers contemporary challenges in child welfare and protection policy and practice in England, resulting from a range of changing social and economic conditions. It discusses whether the growing impetus towards the use of ‘bigger’ data can bring both insights and balance to debates in child welfare and protection. Children’s local authority services in England hold the lead responsibility for the protection of children. Since 2010, these services have faced a 50 percent reduction in their budgets, while demand for services has increased significantly. The history of child welfare and protection policy in England is of successive, but typically failed, attempts to shift the balance away from reactive child protection responses towards early intervention and prevention. Contemporary adoption in England primarily serves the permanence needs of children removed from their parents on account of child maltreatment or neglect.
