Percentage of children in care ‘shows North-South divide’
ONE in every 52 children in Blackpool is in care compared with one in 140 across England, according to newanalysiswhichresearcherssaid exposes “deeply rooted social inequalities” in a North-South divide.
The north of England accounts for just over a quarter (28 per cent) of the child population, but more than a third (36 per cent) of the children in care, the analysis for the Child of the North All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) said.
The report’s lead author, Dr Davara Bennett, based at the University of Liverpool, said the findings show “the damage caused by cuts to prevention and failure to address the very real problem of child poverty in the North”.
The authors said that in Blackpool, in the North-West, one in every 52 children is in care and in Hartlepool, in the North-East, the figure is one in 63.
This compared with one in every 278 for Hertfordshire in the east of England and one in every 256 for Buckinghamshire in the South-East , they said. The higher rates of children entering care are estimated to havecosttheNorthatleast£25bn more in the past four years, the report said.
The report was researched and funded by Health Equity North – an organisation which said it is focused on finding solutions to public health problems and health inequalities across the north of England, and used existing data including official statistics and academic studies.
The analysis suggested a rise in child poverty between 2015 and 2020 “led to over 10,000 additional children entering care in England” and that the “North-South divide in overall care rates is partly explained by widening inequalities in children entering care since 2010”. A rise in the number of children’s homes between 2020 and 2023 “disproportionately affected” the North, according to the report, with some 1,176 children’s homes located there, and just 1,704 in the rest of the country.
It said the North-West alone accounts for more than a quarter of children’s homes and close to a quarter of children’s home places.
This greater provision in the
North “comes at an economic cost”, the researchers said, adding that children living in care homes generally need high levels of support from health, welfare, education, justice, and children’s services.
The report stated: “Decades of underinvestment in the North have hollowed out preventative services, increased rates of children in care and undermined foster care provision, leaving local authorities at the mercy of the private residential care providers.”
The Government has been contacted for comment.