Councils seeing "substantial increase" in demand for children’s services: ADCS

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, a report by the Association of Directors of Children's Services (ADCS) has revealed.

The organisation has published an interim report of the eighth iteration of its Safeguarding Pressures research, which provides an insight into the safeguarding-related pressures currently facing children’s services across the country.

The key findings include:

• 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 the 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 factors in social care assessments which have seen the greatest increases in the past two years are child mental health (up from 11.4% to 13.6%); learning disability: concerns about child (up from 7.5% to 8.5%); and self-harm (up from 3.9% to 4.3%).
• The number of initial requests for an EHCP assessment in 2020/21 increased by 23% from the previous year, and EHCPs increased by 9.9% to 473,255 in January 2022.
• Respondents assert that SEND policy and practice has become as much of a pressure than safeguarding.

The ADCS report explores the impact of the pandemic on demand for children’s services. It is noted that during the first few months of the pandemic, most parts of the country experienced a reduction in demand for their services, with the partial closure of schools having an impact on an initial fall in the number of referrals.

“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”, the report said.

It continues: “More children, who were not previously known to social care services (pre-pandemic), were presenting at a later stage with greater needs and risks. As a result, more children were immediately becoming subjects of child protection plans or proceedings.”

The report notes that SEND policy and practice has become as much of a pressure than safeguarding, according to respondents.

“This is due to challenges in meeting the requirements of the statutory SEND Code of Practice (2014) in the context of increased demand, insufficient funding, the cost of provision for children with SEND, and the increase in the number of children receiving an education health and care plan (EHCP)”, the report stated.

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 continued: “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.”

Lottie Winson