New research from University College London (UCL) has found one in four children in England need social care services by the time they reach adulthood.
To conduct the research, experts analysed data from the Department for Education’s annual Children in Need census from 2012 to 2018. The figures were split across three age cohorts.
The findings, which can be accessed in full here, found around one in three young people are referred to children’s social care services by the time they reach adulthood, while one in four are assessed either as a Child in Need – requiring additional support or services for their health, development or disability – or as needing a child protection plan.
To give context, children’s services encompass both child protection and health-oriented care provision. Meanwhile, Child in Need status can include responses such as more support from parents, home adaptations or respite care. Overall, the study outlined 7% of children require a child protection plan at some point, related to the risk of significant harm, abuse or neglect.
With these findings in mind, researchers said they’ve sparked warnings about the impact the current poverty crisis, which is taking place throughout England, and funding cuts will have on children’s care.
Currently, the government are basing children’s care needs off of snapshot studies that show annual figures; the most recent children’s care census put the number at 400,000 – equating to one in 30.
What’s more, Dr Matthew Jay, a senior data scientist in public health at UCL and lead author of the study, said the number of children needing care services is likely to be higher in poorer areas. The team were unable to break down the data factors into categories like gender, region, ethnicity and deprivation, though Dr Jay remarked it was possible that in some of the most deprived areas of the country, over half of children could be referred to children’s services at some point.
‘These findings raise questions about the extent to which government policies contribute to the circumstances in which a quarter of all children are so vulnerable that they need intervention from children’s social care services,’ Dr Jay said. ‘Policies on income, employment, housing, education and health could be more focused on enabling the circumstances in which parents can bring up their children to be healthy, happy and to achieve their potential.’
Dr Andy Bilson, Emeritus professor of social work at the University of Central Lancashire, and one of the study’s co-authors added: ‘This study shows the high rates of children who become involved with children’s social care across England. However, other research shows that these children are concentrated in the most deprived 10th of the country.
‘We therefore except that the proportion of children ever seen by social care services will be significantly higher in more deprived areas.’
This study, while produced by UCL, was also created in partnership with the University of Edinburgh, the University of Central Lancashire, the Fisher Family Trust and the University of Westminster.
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