Reflections from the North West

The North West, alongside other regions, is struggling to meet the needs of children in our care, the most basic of which is the need for a loving home. Local authority children’s services find we are ‘squeezed’ in the middle of what I would call ‘an imperfect storm’ that leaves – put frankly – children’s services and their local authorities ‘footing the bill’ – and the bill gets bigger each week.

We celebrate reductions in children being admitted to tier 4 (none of us want to see children in these provisions bar for the most complex of our children). We rightly celebrate the reduction in the use of custody for children. We worry about the lack of suitable, affordable housing and the increases we are starting to see as a result in homeless children and families. We worry about the number of vulnerable separated migrant children arriving to the country and then require age assessing and invariably come into our care.