ADCS comment: Safeguarding Pressures Phase 8 interim report

02 Nov 2022 in Safeguarding and Child Protection > Safeguarding & Child Protection >

The Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) today, publishes an interim report of the eighth iteration of its Safeguarding Pressures research. It draws on qualitative and quantitative data from 125 local authorities, covering 83% of England’s child population, to evidence and better understand changes in demand for, and provision of, children’s social care. This interim report provides an insight into the first two years of the pandemic period, from 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2022, and shows that the impact of Covid-19 continues to be felt in children’s lives, local communities and in public services. This, together with existing data, provides an insight into the safeguarding related pressures currently facing children’s services across the country.

The eighth phase of the study covers a time of significant uncertainty and change in the context in which children are living, and in which services are operating. Headline findings include:

- An estimated 2.77 million initial contacts were received at the ‘front door’ to children’s services in 2021/22, an increase of 10% in the last two years – an average of 7,575 contacts a day

- An estimated 282,320 early help assessments took place in 2021/22, a 16% increase in the past two years

- 650,270 referrals were made in England to children’s social care in 2021/22, an increase of 21% since 2007/8, when this research began

- 217,800 Section 47 enquiries were undertaken in England in 2021/22, an increase of 184% since 2007/8 and an increase of 7% in the last two years

- The number of children in care and care leavers have also increased across this period

- The total required now to close the budget gap in children’s services is £778m in one year just to ‘stay still’.

During the first few months of the pandemic, most parts of the country experienced a reduction in demand for their services due to national lockdowns. The partial closure of schools also had an impact on an initial fall in the number of referrals made to children’s social care. However, many local authorities are now seeing a substantial increase in demand for children’s services with new families coming to the attention of social care with more complex risks, needs and vulnerabilities. We do not yet understand the full impact of the pandemic on children’s needs, however, it is clear that we have not reached a ‘post-pandemic’ state.

Local authorities have a legal duty to keep all children safe from harm and to promote their welfare. Cuts to local authority budgets and reductions in funding for other public agencies over the past decade have prevented children’s services and their partners from providing the kind of targeted, early work with families to prevent them from reaching crisis point. Separate pots of grant funding and local authority investment over the past two years have helped alleviate some of the demand pressures, however, it is clear that significant, long-term funding is required to keep pace with anticipated demand as the impacts of the pandemic continues to present itself.

ADCS President Steve Crocker said: “Like seven other phases before it, this latest report evidences significant and growing levels of need for help and support in local communities. It is clear from the research that the life experiences of children are deteriorating. The independent review of children’s social care provides a framework for the future but it must not be forgotten that the reforms were dependent upon a significant financial investment, we cannot continue to do this on the cheap. More and more families are experiencing hardship, or have reached crisis, and we know that there is a strong correlation between poverty, deprivation and involvement with children’s social care. With the cost of living crisis beginning to bite many more children and families will fall into poverty. Local authority children’s services are responding to needs which, under normal circumstances, should have been met earlier in the system and not escalated to the point of crisis. Funding is not keeping pace with this reality, neither are the foundations needed to make the system a success, such as workforce, placements, legislation and regulation.

He went onto say: “Five years on from ADCS publishing our policy paper, A country that works for all children, we have a long way to achieve this rightly ambitious aim and in too many ways, things are now worse than in 2017. We are at a critical juncture in children’s services, there are many challenges highlighted in the interim report, from insufficient funding, workforce shortages and a dysfunctional care placement market, but there are also real and present opportunities for us to make the system work better if the investment from government is forthcoming. Yes, there are competing economic pressures but I can think of nothing more important than investing in a system that protects and cares for our most vulnerable children. This will need political commitment and genuine partnership between government departments to do the right thing for children and achieve meaningful change.”

ENDS