CHAPTER 7: Children in care

Broadhurst, Karen and Bird, Philippa K and Erlam, Jayne and Doebler, Stefanie and Alrouh, Bachar and Irving, Emmerline (2021) CHAPTER 7: Children in care. In: Child of the North. The Northern Health Science Alliance and N8 Research Partnership, Liverpool and York, p. 43.

Abstract

This chapter focuses on children in public care in the North, and captures the challenges that services were facing prior to, and throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The North of England records the highest rates of children in care and provides the largest share of children’s home places in England, for children with the most complex needs. Despite the best efforts of frontline practitioners and the resilience of carers, the outlook for the North is bleak. Increasing family adversity, pressures on preventative services and the continued remote or hybrid delivery of professional help, mean that pressures in social care are not likely to let up. Further stacked challenges arise from the ongoing crisis in the family courts, insufficiency of out-of-home placements and critical shortfalls in mental health provision. In this chapter, we present new data from one North West NHS Trust. The data capture escalating rates of detention, by the police, of children in acute mental distress, including children in care. We set out key policy recommendations that will help avert further harms to children in the North, while levelling up life chances. These recommendations require urgent attention.