There has been a 10% increase in parental mental health being the “main presenting need” in assessments between 2021/22 and 2022/23, according to the Association of Directors of Children's Services (ADCS), which has carried out the research.
Three quarters of children’s services leaders surveyed by the ADCS said issues arising from deteriorating parental mental health had increased pressure on their services over the last two years.
One survey respondent in the South West region said they are increasingly seeing parents employing “dangerous strategies to manage their own needs”.
Two thirds of children’s services leaders said parental alcohol and drug addiction problems had intensified pressure on the support they can offer over the past two years, particularly linked to parents use of Class A drugs.
The ADCS also warns of “growing concerns about poor mental health among adolescents” and delays in access to treatment for parents and carers with health problems, particularly for alcohol and substance misuse”.
“The lack of focus on, and prioritisation of, children and young people in recent health reforms and in the operation of integrated care boards was also frequently raised as a concern for leaders of children’s services right across the country,” said the organisation.
Increasing mental health concerns in safeguarding assessments is part of a shift in safeguarding trends the ADCS has not previously seen to this extent in its previous research.
Poor quality housing is another increasingly prevalent factor, the children's service leaders organisation warns.
“Overcrowding, use of temporary accommodation and the affordability of housing is very clearly contributing to family distress and breakdown against the backdrop of a cost-of-living crisis,” said the ADCS.
It found that children’s services are “now routinely supplementing rents” under their 1989 Children Act duties to keep families together. Families are also having to move far from their homes and communities due to rising cost of housing.
Another continuing factor arising in assessments is the lasting impact of Covid-19 on children.
This has exacerbated mental health problems, heightened inequalities and led to deteriorating behaviour in schools and social and developmental delays in young children, according to the research.
“Families are less resilient and have more entrenched, overlapping needs and challenges as the pandemic aggravated or accelerated these,” said the ADCS.
“The impact on children and young people has been significantly underestimated and will continue for many years to come.
The ADCS’s research is its latest to look at pressures on safeguarding services. It is based on survey results from 86 councils, interviews with 34 children’s services leaders and tracking of the latest child protection statistics.
It found that initial children’s social care contacts have more than doubled since 2007/8 and now stand at just over three million. Referrals are up by a fifth and the number of children in care is up by more than a quarter over the same period.
While child protection plans have fallen by 3% since 2021/22 they are up by 83% since 2007/8, the ADCS’s analysis has found.
ADCS president Andy Smith said that a “stripping back of our public services” in recent years “has led to, and continues to result in, poor outcomes for children”.
“In order to improve children’s lives, we need to improve public services as a whole and ensure that parents and carers have the access to the support they need and families are able to be housed in safe, decent homes in the communities they have connections in,” he said.
Smith said Labour government investment and pledges aimed at boosting child protection and supporting families is “encouraging”.
But he warned that “the stark impact of poverty, the housing crisis and failing health services on children’s lives and on their childhoods is undeniable”.
“It is clear that the government needs to take bolder, swifter action to truly improve children’s life chances now and in the future,” he added.
