Publication of 'Children's Social Care Statistics for Northern Ireland 2024/25'

Date published: 16 October 2025

The Department of Health has today published 'Children's Social Care Statistics for Northern Ireland 2024/25'.

At 31 March 2025, 22,243 children in Northern Ireland were known to Social Services as a child in need;

Child Protection Register

At 31 March 2025, 2,283 children were listed on the Child Protection Register;
Neglect and physical abuse were the main reasons for a child being on the Child Protection Register and accounted for 84% of all on the Register;
A total of 1,549 child protection referrals were received by HSC Trusts[1];
There were 2,044 new registrations to the Child Protection Register and 2,105 de-registrations during the year.

At 31 March 2025, 4,188 children and young people were in care in Northern Ireland. This was the highest number recorded since the introduction of the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995;
Over a fifth (23%) of looked after children at 31 March 2025 had come into care within the last year and just under a third (32%) had been in care for five years or longer.;
Some five in six children in care were in foster care placements (84%), 6% placed with parents, 5% in residential care and 5% in other placements. This was similar to previous years;
During 2024/25 there were 1,110 admissions to care and 934 discharges.

At 30 June 2025, there were 58 Children's Residential Homes in Northern Ireland, 48 homes were statutory and 10 were independent.
Statutory homes provided 275 places at an average of six places per home; independent homes provided 26 places at an average of three per home.

At 31 March 2025 there were 3,196 individuals/facilities registered as day care provision for children aged 12 and under in Northern Ireland. This was a 2% decrease on the previous year;
Similar to the previous year, childminders made up the largest number of day care providers;
At 31 March 2025 there were 57,358 registered places for day care in Northern Ireland representing an increase of 2% on the previous year.

At 31 March 2025, there were 2,868 HSC Trust recruited foster carers and a further 261 Independent sector foster carers;
During 2024/25, 947 initial home visits were carried out by HSC Trusts and 422 fostering assessments were completed;
During 2024/25, some 336 foster carers recruited by the HSC Trusts de-registered as carers.

At 31 March 2025 there were 1,963 young people subject to the Leaving Care Act;
Relevant and former relevant young people accounted for the largest proportion of care leavers (1,225; 62%), while qualifying young people represented for the smallest group with 44 care leavers (2%).