Western Health Trust has highest number of children in need in North

There are 4,460 children known to social services within the Western Health and Social Care Trust (WHSCT) as ‘a child in need’ according to the most recent statistics.

The figure, the highest of the five health and social care trusts in the North, represents 623.0 per 10,000 of the population under 18 in the WHSCT.

21% or one fifth of the 21,180 children across the North known to social services as children in need are in the WHSCT area.

According to the Department of Health, a child is in need if they are “unlikely to achieve or maintain, or to have the opportunity of achieving or maintaining, a reasonable standard of health or development without the provision of services by an authority, or their health or development is likely to be significantly impaired, or further impaired without the provision of such services, or they are disabled”.

The statistic was revealed in the ‘Children’s Social Care Statistics for Northern Ireland 2025/26’ report published on Thursday (October 15, 2026) by the Department.

The report also revealed 378 children here were on the Child Protection Register.

This accounted for 52.8 per 10,000 of the population under 18 in the WHSCT, again the highest figure of the North’s five health and social care trusts.

Neglect and physical abuse were the main reasons recorded for a child being placed on the Child Protection Register. They accounted for 84% of all children in the North being included.

According to the Report, a total of 1,374 child protection referrals were received by all health and social care trusts.

360 of these were made to the WHSCT, the second highest number behind the Northern Health and Social Care Trust which had 362 referrals.

149 of the referrals to the WHSCT were made by the PSNI, the highest number of police referrals in the North.

There were 1,865 new registrations to the Child Protection Register across the North last year, of which 377 were in the WHSCT, the second highest number behind the Southern Health and Social Care Trust with 465 new registrations.

Of the 431 children in the North who were re-registered on the Child Protection Register, the highest number, 123, were in the WHSCT.

There were also 432 children in the WHSCT de-registered from the Child Protection Register last year, of a total of 2,159 de-registrations.

The Report also revealed, as of March 2026, 4,287 children and young people were in care in the North. This was the highest number recorded since the introduction of the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995. 668 of these children were in the WHSCT, representing 93.3 per 10,000 of the population here under 18 years of age.

In addition, more than a fifth (21%) of looked after children in the North had come into care within the last year. In this WHSCT the figure was 20%.

33% of looked after children in the North had been in care for five years longer. The comparable figure in the WHSCT was 38%.

Across the North last year, 46 children were in residential care, a figure which is confidential in the WHSCT to avoid personal disclosure; 803 were in foster care, of which 133 were in the WHSCT.

During 2025/26 there were 1,038 admissions to care and 900 discharges in the North. In the WHSCT there were 182 admissions and 202 discharges from care.

The ‘Children’s Social Care Statistics for Northern Ireland 2025/26’ report also recorded that as of June 30, 2026, there were 60 Children’s Residential Homes in the North, 12 of which were in the WHSCT.

In addition, there were 3,025 individuals/facilities registered as day care provision for children aged 12 and under in the North, a 5% decrease on the previous year. There are 576 such individuals/facilities registered in the WHSCT.

Similar to the previous year, childminders made up the largest number of day care providers;

At 31 March 2026 there were 55,870 registered places for day care in the North, representing a decrease of 3% on the previous year. 8,871 of these places were in the WHSCT.