The rise in demand led 30 out of 36 county local authorities to overspend a combined total of £317m on children's services, with councils in these areas seeing some of the largest increases in England for referrals to children’s services.
Nationally, all 151 top-tier English councils with children’s services responsibility overspent by £946.5m collectively.
The CCN attributed the overspends to a surge in demand for children's services post-pandemic.
It found that between 2020/21 and 2022/23, there was an increase of more than 20,000 referrals across county councils – an increase of nine per cent compared with the period between 2018/19 and 2019/20.
Over the same post-pandemic period, the number of children in care in county areas increased by 1,079, in contrast with the months directly prior to the pandemic which saw a decrease of 140 children in care.
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