As a new decade dawns, a record number of children are now in the care of local authorities in England.
Department for Education figures covering the 12 months up to 31 March 2019 reveal there are 78,150 children in care – four per cent more than on the same date a year earlier.
The latest figures continue a trend that first began in 2011 and has gathered pace as the previous decade progressed (see graphics).
Throughout this time, rising care numbers have been blamed on a range of factors including overly cautious social work practice, bullish government policy, rulings in the family court and a rise in child poverty following austerity.
Behind the overall rise in care numbers, other trends have emerged including a dramatic fall in adoption (see box) and a rise in the use of kinship carers and, more recently, special guardianship orders.
Here, children’s services experts analyse the key factors behind the trends and outline what needs to change to improve outcomes for vulnerable children in the 2020s.
Care use on the increase
The rate of looked-after children in care in England has reached a new high of 65 per 10,000 children, compared with 64 in 2018 and 62 in 2017. Between 2010/11 and 2018/19, there has been a 21 per cent rise in children in care.
Andy Elvin, chief executive of charity TACT, blames the rise on austerity.
“We get families struggling under financial pressure,” he says. “That in itself would not see a child taken into care, but it can be the cause of a family beginning to break down.”
Lisa Harker, director of the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory, says the rise could be down to a lack of early intervention to help families stay together.
She calls for more support for families faced with “difficult and complex issues” including drug and alcohol addiction, and more funding for social care.
“Intensive support for parents needs to be given earlier to provide intervention before a child is taken into care,” she says.
Harker highlights the success of the Family Drug and Alcohol Court in “providing help for those struggling with addiction, while also supporting them to look after their children before they are taken into care”.
The number of children who ceased to be in care has also dropped from previous years.
As of 31 March 2019, 29,460 children had left the care system, compared with 30,050 on the same date in 2018 and 31,350 in 2015.
White British children made up 62 per cent of those who left care, while 11 per cent were black British and six per cent were Asian.
Some 9,570 of those who left care did so because they turned 18. A further 7,020 children returned home to live with parents – 5,760 of these returns were planned.
However, Elvin suggests more data should be collated on children who are leaving care to live with parents before returning back to the care system.
“What we need to know is how many times these children have come back to the care system and identify the reasons why this has happened. It’s not good for the child if they are leaving care to go home and then coming back,” he says.
More kinship carers
In 2018/19, more children were being placed under a special guardianship order (SGO) than were placed for adoption.
In total, 13 per cent of children living in foster care in England are in kinship care arrangements, the figures show. Most special guardians are relatives or friends (90 per cent), with a large majority of the rest (nine per cent) being former foster carers.
Placing children with friends and family is often the first port of call as a result of the 2013 Re B-S High Court ruling, Elaine Dibben, adoption development consultant at Coram BAAF, explains.
“Many are being placed under SGOs earlier,” she says. “When a child comes into care, adoption is often not on their care plan; grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins will be assessed first to see if they can be placed with them.”
Adoption UK chief executive Sue Armstrong Brown says the establishment of this approach as common practice over the past five years has seen the number of children placed under SGOs or in kinship care “stabilise” after a period when numbers rose quickly.
Elvin highlights the importance of stability when placing a child, suggesting data on the length of placements was more relevant in some cases than adoption figures.
“Too much emphasis is placed on adoption figures when what we really should be looking at is stability,” he says.
“If a child is staying in one placement, be it foster care or with family for a long time with a stable access to education, then that is what we should be focusing on.
“If a child is moving from placement to placement and this isn’t planned and not in their best interests, that is more of a worry.”
He also raises concerns over a disparity in benefits and funding offered to kinship carers compared to foster carers and adopters, saying that the financial burden most often falls on grandparents “who have to take early retirement to look after a child with the same needs as a child in foster care or who is placed for adoption”.
Emerging trends
The DfE notes a “slight increase in the number of children placed in secure units, children’s homes and hostels” with 9,500 children – 12 per cent of the total care population – living in such settings.
Elvin warns that this increase could be down to a rise in the number of child sexual exploitation (CSE) victims.
He says: “There are young girls who have been victims of CSE and have moved from placement to placement until there is no other option for them to be placed in a secure unit – not because they are particularly badly behaved, but because they are victims.”
Uncertainty surrounding the future of the care system under a new government left experts unable to gauge if trends would continue at the current rate.
Instead they highlight the need for a review of the system which includes providing increased support for kinship carers, early intervention to prevent children coming into care and greater emphasis on all routes out of care for those who enter it.
Harker says: “Adoption or special guardianship will only ever be an option for a minority of children and by focusing on just one aspect of the system we risk missing the bigger picture.
The goals must be to intervene much earlier and much more effectively to support families to safely care for their children, and to focus on achieving the best possible outcomes for those in care so that each child has the chance to thrive. This means expanding the spotlight to look at the system as a whole so we can make meaningful evidence-based change in the best interests of children – backed by political will and resources.”
Experts call for improvements to recruitment, training and support for adopters
Statistics show that 3,570 children were placed for adoption up to 31 March 2019, seven per cent fewer than the number placed for adoption in the same period a year earlier.
Experts blame the fall on the continued impact of the Re B-S High Court ruling in 2013, which ordered social workers to explore the potential for special guardianship orders (SGOs), kinship care and early family support before recommending a plan for adoption.
Andy Elvin, TACT chief executive, says children are now much more likely to be placed with friends or relatives.
“Following the ruling in 2013, judges treat adoption as a last resort,” he says.
“If there is no other option, a child under five will automatically be placed for adoption, but older children and teenagers are increasingly hard to place.
“There has been a steady decrease in the number of adoptions made since 2013 – this isn’t a new trend.”
However, Adoption UK expresses concern that delays in court processes and low numbers of prospective adopters are leading to long waits for children needing a permanent family.
Adoption UK chief executive Sue Armstrong Brown says: “We urgently need to see improvements in the way adopters are recruited, trained and supported to ensure these vulnerable children find the loving, stable homes they deserve.”
Improving recruitment of adopters from Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds must be a key target, she adds. In 2018/19, there were 19,570 BAME children placed in care, 25 per cent of the overall total, the figures show.
Yet, just 17 per cent of children who were adopted were non-white British, 11 per cent were mixed race, one per cent were Asian or Asian British, and two per cent black or black British. The ethnicities of the remaining three per cent were not specified or the information was unknown.
“Children from BAME communities wait longer to be placed for adoption because of a shortage of prospective adopters from ethnic minority backgrounds,” Armstrong Brown adds.
Harker says the fall has come after a spike in adoptions in 2012 due to a government recruitment initiative.
“We have to look at this in terms of a long-term trend,” she says.
“There has been a drop in rates since 2012 when there was a spike in the number of children being adopted. This spike was probably down to a significant push by the government to highlight the need for adopters to come forward.
“This was a short-term solution as adoption is only an option for a handful of people.”
Same-sex adoptions
Despite a lack of BAME adopters, a record number of same-sex couples (490) adopted children in 2018/19 – up from 450 during the same time period in 2017/18.
Same-sex couples not in a civil partnership or married accounted for four per cent of all adoptions, while nine per cent of adopted children were placed with different sex couples.
Three per cent of adopters were in civil partnerships, the figures show.
Married couples made up 72 per cent of all adopters. Of these, 65 per cent are different sex couples, five per cent are male couples and two per cent female couples.
Single adopters accounted for 12 per cent of adoptions – 11 per cent of whom were female and one per cent male.
Armstrong Brown says: “With around one in 10 adoptions going to same-sex couples, the myth that adopters must be a middle-class married couple has been well and truly busted.
“But while the number of children in need of an adoptive home outstrips prospective adopters, we need to keep reinforcing the message that people from all walks of life can adopt.”
Dr Carol Homden, chief executive of charity Coram, adds: “There are now more single parents and same-sex couples adopting, and timescales for children adopted are still good – however, those not yet adopted are waiting longer.”
