Over 2,100 children are on child protection registers in Northern Ireland, an increase of almost 20% since 2007, a new review has shown.

However, the number of abuse-related child deaths is continuing to fall, due to a ‘strong child protection system'.

Translating Learning Into Action is the first review of abuse cases related to child death or serious injury ever undertaken in Northern Ireland. It involves details of 24 case reviews, involving 45 children, who were killed or seriously injured between 2003 and 2008.

Among the 24 cases reviewed, 18 dealt with the death of a child, including four children who died following a physical or sexual assault.

While acknowledging that the rate of non-accidental deaths of children is on the decline in Northern Ireland, the review noted a number of areas that need more attention.

For example, it said that there is a need for services to become involved at an earlier stage with families ‘before problems become entrenched and harder to improve'.

Services also need to stay involved with families for longer to ensure that improvements remain in the long-term.

Alongside services for physical and sexual abuse, children should be able to avail of therapeutic services ‘to address the psychological harm of poor parenting'.

The review also stated that professionals working in this area should be provided with more opportunities to meet more often in order to co-ordinate assessments and interventions with affected families.

Meanwhile, senior managers must take more responsibility for ensuring that the workload of professionals, such as social workers, is manageable and that they are experienced enough to handle the various cases assigned to them.

Staff should also be given adequate support and supervision to deal with what is often ‘highly complex and emotional work'.

"This is the first time a review like this has been carried out in Northern Ireland. The overall aim has been to provide better safeguards for children by establishing the facts of the cases where children have died or been seriously injured, establishing whether lessons can be learned, identifying what those lessons are and how they can be acted upon," commented Principal investigator, Dr John Devaney, of Queen's University in Belfast.