Twenty one per cent of children (4,460) in the Western Trust were known to social services as children in need at the end of March - the highest proportion in the North.

Over one fifth of children locally were deemed to be children in need in the spring, according to the Department of Health’s annual Children’s Social Care Statistics for 2025/26. The Southern Trust posted a similar proportion but the number of children in need in the Western Trust rose by 5 per cent (212 children) year-on year from 4,248 to 4,460.

The Western Trust also had the highest rate of children in need (623 children per 10,000 child population), the annual report shows.

Equally, the highest rate of children on the Child Protection Register (52.8 children per 10,000 child population) was recorded in the Western Trust with 378 children – down by 60

Twenty one per cent of children (4,460) in the Western Trust were known to social services as children in need at the end of March - the highest proportion in the North.

placeholder image — Twenty one per cent of children (4,460) in the Western Trust were known to social services as children in need at the end of March - the highest proportion in the North.

The authors identified ‘neglect’ and ‘physical abuse’ as the main reasons for children or young people being placed on the Child Protection Register. Neglect accounted for the largest proportion of registrations across the North at 36 per cent.

“In the Belfast, Northern and Western HSC Trusts Neglect Abuse Only was the most common category of abuse while Physical Abuse Only was the most common in the Southern HSC Trust,” the report notes.

There were 360 Child Protection Referrals (the second highest number in the North) and 528 Significant Events (also the second highest) that led to Child Protection Investigations in the Western Trust in the year ending March 31, 2026.

Investigations involve the convention of a Case Conference, a meeting ‘organised by the social work services to consult with other agencies to collate information about the child and family’.

Across the North ‘some 85 per cent of Initial Case Conferences resulted in a child being placed on the Child Protection Register during 2025/26’.

"At HSC Trust level there was some variation, ranging from 96 per cent of case conferences resulting in registration in the South Eastern HSC Trust to 77 per cent in both the Northern and Western HSC Trusts,” the bulletin notes.

The Western Trust accounted for the largest number of children being re-registered on the protection rota.

"There were 431 re-registrations to the Child Protection Register during 2025/26, unchanged from the previous year. The Western HSC Trust accounted for the largest proportion of all re-registrations (29 per cent), whilst the Belfast HSC Trust was the lowest (9 per cent). The proportion in the remaining HSC Trusts ranged from 20 per cent to 23 per cent,” the report reveals.

The number of looked after children in the Western Trust decreased by 18 from 886 to 668 year-on-year giving a rate of 93.3 per 10,000 of the child population locally.

Across the North just over a fifth (21 per cent) of looked after children at March 2026 had come into care within the last year and just under a third (33 per cent) had been in care for five years or longer.

"There is some HSC variation, with the most prominent variation found with the Western HSC Trust that had largest percentage of children in care less than 3 months, and for ten years or longer,” it was revealed.