‘The number of children going into care is a national disgrace’

THE rising number of children going into care has been branded “a national disgrace” by a South Wales councillor who is urging ministers to “get involved” and act on the issue.

Between 2016 and 2017, the overall number of children in care across Wales increased by 5.5%.

Of the 17 local authorities that had shown increases, seven had experienced rises of more than 10%, of which three were over 15% and one (Anglesey) had risen by 30%.

While Bridgend had an increase of 2.2% for the year, it was the fourth highest in Wales for the number of looked after children per 10,000 population.

At a Bridgend council meeting earlier this week, officers said there were almost 400 children currently being looked after in care across the county, the majority being placed with foster carers.

Speaking at the meeting, Councillor Martyn Jones said: “Looked after children and the factors that are involved with it are out of our control.

“It’s been presented to us on more than once occasion that it’s becoming a national issue.

“If we stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the 22 authorities it could be asked what are we doing locally.

“However the trend is telling us, on a national level, the numbers of looked after children are increasing, it’s becoming a national problem.”

The Bettws councillor added: “We talked about targeted intervention in one local authority (Neath Port Talbot) – is it the current practice of Welsh Government to firefight each authority or is somebody down there going to stand back and say ‘hang on a minute, we’ve got an issue across Wales here, how can we deal with the issues and how can we support the 22 local authorities?’

“There are a number of ministers that should get involved – Vaughan Gething in health, for example, children’s minister Huw Irranca-Davies and Alun Davies, the minister for communities.

“It’s a national disgrace of the number of kids that are going into care at the moment, it’s absolutely disgraceful. This conversation could be replicated 21 times across Wales.

“This is my fifth year in this chamber. For five years we have been talking about the rising numbers and it doesn’t seem to be going down, it’s only going up.”

Officers told councillors there were a number of “early intervention” programmes in place to help tackle the issue.

The council has developed a new Baby in Mind service that focuses on support for parents during the prebirth period and the first six months of a baby’s life while the Reflect Service is another new service which works with mothers who have had children removed from their care.

In August 2017, a rapid response team started which involves staff offering intensive support for a four to sixweek period with the main aim of preventing children becoming looked after or to enable them to return home to family following a period in care.

Councillors on the scrutiny committee agreed to write a letter to ministers to raise their concerns.

A Welsh Government spokesman said: “The Welsh Government recognises the pressures being placed on local authorities.

“That’s why we have taken action to strengthen early intervention and preventative action to reduce the numbers of children coming into care.

“Local authorities have a statutory responsibility for looked after children, and as corporate parents should be working to reduce numbers while improving outcomes for those children already in care.”