Little evidence to support focus on ‘toxic trio’, National Children's Bureau suggests
Joe Lepper
Thursday, November 26, 2020
Academics have found a lack of evidence to support the children’s social care sector’s focus on the combined impact of parental mental illness, drug or alcohol abuse and domestic violence.
Research led by the National Children’s Bureau (NCB) and the Universities of Cambridge and Kent says there is “little evidence to support the focus in children’s social work on the combined effect of the so-called toxic trio”.
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This calls into question the commonly held view that where these factors occur together the risks to children multiply.
The NCB says the research found there is little understanding of “how, and indeed if, they combine to significantly increase the danger to children”.
Where previous studies have looked at parental mental problems, substance abuse and domestic violence together these have “lacked the precision, detail and depth needed to inform good policymaking, or even to estimate how common these factors are or how many children are experiencing abuse and neglect as a result of them,” said the NCB.
The study found that problems with previous research on the "toxic trio" wrongly include learning disabilities within the scope of mental illness.
Families’ access to support was “often overlooked” and there was little focus on how children of different ages, socio-economic conditions and poverty are affected.
The concept of the "toxic trio" is also criticised by parents, who were consulted as part of the research.
They said the term was “offensive and alienating” with some feeling they were being unfairly judged by social workers due to “preoccupation” in social care with the term.
The NCB is calling on children’s professionals to “unlearn the assumptions” they have behind the impact of the "toxic trio".
“Parental mental ill-health, domestic violence, and drug or alcohol misuse, are undoubtedly significant risk factors in children’s lives,” said Anna Feuchtwang, chief executive of the NCB.
“But so are other factors, such as families’ financial resources and the support available to them within their communities.
“Labels like “toxic trio” can lead to making assumptions that are not borne out by the evidence and this risks alienating families rather than supporting children. It’s essential that social workers are given the right tools to make an evidence informed approach to prevent harm.”
Earlier this month the Office of National Statistics suggested that children living in homes with one or more of the "toxic trio" of mental illness, domestic abuse or substance abuse are more likely to be victims of crime.
Research from 2018 by the children's commissioner for England estimated that 420,000 children and young people live in homes where all three of the toxic trio are present.