This chapter focuses on children in public care in the North, and
captures the challenges that services were facing prior to, and
throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The North of England records
the highest rates of children in care and provides the largest share of
children’s home places in England, for children with the most complex
needs.
Despite the best efforts of frontline practitioners and the resilience of
carers, the outlook for the North is bleak. Increasing family adversity,
pressures on preventative services and the continued remote or
hybrid delivery of professional help, mean that pressures in social
care are not likely to let up. Further stacked challenges arise from
the ongoing crisis in the family courts, insufficiency of out-of-home
placements and critical shortfalls in mental health provision.
In this chapter, we present new data from one North West NHS
Trust. The data capture escalating rates of detention, by the police,
of children in acute mental distress, including children in care. We
set out key policy recommendations that will help avert further
harms to children in the North, while levelling up life chances. These
recommendations require urgent attention.