A new report has revealed the £25 billion burden of children in care which has been placed on stretched services in the North of England.
Published by Health Equity North on behalf of the Child of the North All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), the report, co-authored by Lancaster University researchers, shows the disproportionately high rates of children in care in the North compared to its southern counterparts.
It also highlights the immense pressure placed on children's services in northern regions that shoulder a greater share of a weighty economic burden as a result.
Put into perspective, if the North had experienced the same care entry rates as the South between 2019 and 2023, it would have saved at least £25 billion in lifetime social costs of children in care.
Led by Dr Davara Bennett from the University of Liverpool, the authors, who included Professor Karen Broadhurst and Dr Stephanie Doebler, from Lancaster University, analysed existing data to paint a clear picture of the regional inequalities that exist within the care system in England.
The report builds on and uses analysis from the first Child of the North report which focused on post-Covid recovery and for which Professor Broadhurst led the research on Children in Care in the North.
The new report found that in the North, the rate of children in care per 10,000 of the child population is 93, compared to 62 in the rest of England.
The North East has the highest overall care rates, followed by the North West, West Midlands and then Yorkshire and the Humber.
There were more than 83,000 children in care in 2023 in England and the report warns that the risk of that number rising is high as health inequalities continue to widen and more and more families are falling into poverty, particularly in the North.
The rise in child poverty between 2015 and 2020 led to over 10,000 additional children entering care - equivalent to one in 12 care entries over the period.
The worrying findings of the report have prompted calls from Child of the North APPG members and academics for urgent action to address the inequalities in the care system.
The Child of the North APPG members and report authors are calling for a range of measures to be considered by government including: policies to reduce child poverty; enhanced material support for families involved in Children's Services; investment in prevention strategies; joint anti-racist and anti-poverty policies; more support for older children and those leaving care; strengthening the workforce and wider system; and optimising children's social care data.
The Children in Care in the North of England report also summarises evidence on ethnic inequalities in children's chances of experiencing care in England, decreasing numbers of foster carers, shortages in children's homes, private profiteering, education disadvantages, children's social care workforce challenges, homelessness, and includes insights from care experienced children as well as those working within children's services at local authority level.
Further findings include:
Northern care rates
· In Blackpool one in every 52 children is in care and in Hartlepool it's one in 63 - compared to England, which is one in 140.
· The North accounts for 28% of the child population, but 36% of the children in care.
· The 27% increase in the number of children's homes between 2020 and 2023 disproportionately affected the North of England. The North has 1,176 children's homes, or over 40% of the children's homes in England - there are just 1,704 in the rest of England.
· The North West alone now accounts for over a quarter of children's homes and close to a quarter of children's home places.
· In 2023, two thirds of local authorities with care rates exceeding 1% were in the North
Child poverty and care
· In England, in 2015, children in the most deprived 10% of neighbourhoods were over ten times more likely to be in care than children in the least deprived 10%
· There are deep intersectional inequalities in care. Mixed Heritage populations experience particularly high levels of both socioeconomic and ethnic inequity in care rates.
Care experienced children
· Up to four decades after their initial care assessment, care experienced people are more likely to die earlier than their peers, of causes related to self-harm, poor mental health, behaviours and accidents.
· In England, of the cohort of children born in 2009/10, around one in five children were referred to Children's Services before the age of five. In Liverpool, this number is one in two.
· Depending on their ethnicity, care experienced children are between two and 16 times more likely to have youth justice involvement than those with no experience of care.
· Black Caribbean children are more likely to be placed far from home.
· Black Caribbean children, and children recorded as White Traveller of Irish heritage, are more likely to experience multiple placements.
Care costs
· Placement costs incurred solely due to the rise in child poverty between 2015 and 2020 are estimated at £1.4 billion. It would cost £0.25 billion per year to support 250,000 children out of deep poverty by abolishing the benefit cap. It would cost £1.3 billion per year to lift a further 250,000 children out of poverty by abolishing the two-child limit.
· Between 2011 and 2019, as spending on children in care increased, total spending on preventative services for children and families fell by about 25% in real terms.
· Over that period, cuts to adolescent services totalling £58 million led to more 16-17-year-olds over entering care - and placement costs exceeding £60 million.
· Between 2015-16 and 2021-22, local authority spending on residential care more than doubled. One in 10 local authorities are now at risk of bankruptcy. For northern regions hosting disproportionate numbers of children in care, the economic burden is substantial.
