CYP Now - Black and Asian children less likely to receive legal orders in care proceedings, research finds

Black and Asian children are less likely to receive legal orders during care proceedings than white or mixed-race children and experience longer waits for their case to be completed, according to new data.

Cases involving black or Asian children took longer on average to reach a legal order, report finds. Picture: Darren Baker/Adobe Stock

The proportion of no order decisions – where a judge believes that making no legal order would be more beneficial for a child undergoing care proceedings – is higher for black and Asian children than for children of white and mixed or multiple ethnic groups, the data analysis from Nuffield Family Justice Observatory has found.

This is the first time data has examined demographic characteristics of children of different ethnicities in care proceedings.

No orders made up nine per cent of decisions involving black children and 15 per cent of those involving Asian children, compared with four per cent of orders involving white children and five per cent of those made for mixed or multiple ethnicity children.

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