Almost 100,000 children could be in care by 2025, councils warn
Nina Jacobs
Monday, November 22, 2021
Council leaders have warned that nearly 100,000 children could be in care by 2025, prompting urgent calls to support an “unrelenting” focus on keeping families together.
Latest figures released by the County Councils Network (CCN) predict the number of care placements could hit a record high - up from 69,000 in 2015 - forcing local authorities to spend up to 60 per cent of their budgets to support these vulnerable children.
It is warning that a reliance on expensive care placements could see councils in England spend £3.6bn a year more in 2025 on children in care than figures recorded a decade ago.
Unless major reform and investment is made, such increased financial pressure will inevitably mean less money is available for other services to support families, the CCN said.
Speaking at the organisation's annual conference on Monday, CCN chair Councillor Tim Oliver told delegates too many vulnerable children were being placed in expensive residential care settings due to a lack of appropriate alternatives such as foster care.
This meant councils were also having to reduce preventative services, particularly for those most at risk of entering the care system, he said.
He called for a systemic reform of the way public services worked together to reduce the number of children entering the care system, and the number of young people staying in care for longer.
This could see local authorities, schools, police, courts and the health service work more effectively on emerging issues affecting families, such as mental health, said Oliver.
The research, conducted on behalf of CCN by data analyst Newton, found the number of children in care could increase by 36 per cent, from 69,000 in 2015 to 95,000 in 2025.
This could result in spending increases from £3.8bn in 2015 to £7.4bn in 2025, equating to 59 per cent of councils’ children and family budget spent on children in care, up from 42 per cent in 2015.
The study reveals the number of children in residential care has increased by 27 per cent since 2015, largely due to insufficient numbers of foster carers and children staying in the care system for longer.
It highlights the increased cost of residential care, the most expensive form of care, with average placements rising from £2,915 per week in 2014 to £4,165 in 2020.
Separate figures released by CCN show many local authorities have reduced spending on preventative services by £436m since 2015, due to increased funding pressures.
Oliver said councils had found themselves in a “vicious cycle” as a result of reducing these preventative services to focus on intervention in crisis situations, coupled with a lack of foster care.
“The reality is that there are too many vulnerable children being placed in expensive residential care settings and staying in the care system for longer.
“With the situation becoming unsustainable, we need additional funding and an unrelenting focus on preventing family breakdown and keeping families together, alongside systemic reform of how councils work with their public sector partners to achieve these aims,” he said.
CCN and Newton are due to publish the full findings of their study in a report, The Future of Children’s Social Care, in 2022.
It will explore in detail how an "optimised" model of children’s services, delivered by councils, can improve outcomes and partnership working and reduce long-term costs for children in care.
