VARIATION IN OPERATION OF ENGLISH CHILD PROTECTION REGISTERS

English child protection register statistics reveal wide and persisten t variations between authorities, but over time their rank order remai ns moderately stable. Sociodemographic characteristics of areas combin ed with differing policies and practices in keeping the register have been found to explain much of the variability. While statistics of chi ldren on registers are not valid measures of the incidence of child ma ltreatment, registers themselves appear to play a useful part in local child protection systems.