Fear of the ‘next Baby P’ drives increase in children taken into care

Budgets are shrinking and demand rising for social services to intervene before families reach crisis point

The dramatic increase in the number of court applications to take children into care in England will surprise few who work in children’s social care. Numbers have been stubbornly high for almost three years, and no one is predicting a fall anytime soon.

The January 2012 Cafcass figure of 903 applications is noteworthy as a new record high: but it is only the latest in a line of record-breaking months since the “Baby P effect” sent care requests spiralling in December 2008, and only seven applications higher than the previous record of 896, in March 2011.

That month saw the sacking and scapegoating of Sharon Shoesmith, at the time Haringey council’s director of children’s services. She and her staff had been pilloried by politicians and the media for allegedly failing to protect Baby P, Peter Connolly, a toddler on the council’s at-risk register who had been brutally killed by his mother, her lover and lodger.

The furore sent shockwaves through the profession. The prospect of having “the next Baby P” on their hands made social workers and their bosses more cautious and averse to risk. Councils wanted to insure as far as possible against a child dying on their watch; they feared the political and career catastrophe that would engulf them if they failed (a court later ruled that Shoesmith had been unfairly removed from her post).

As the Cafcass chief executive, Anthony Douglas, pointed out last year: “Since … [the case of Baby Peter], many local authorities have lowered the threshold they use for making a court application to remove a child, and kept that threshold lower.”

What is worrying social services professionals, however, is the pressure this forces on to already hard-pressed social services departments. The increase in care applications mirrors the rise in referrals of children to child protection teams, piling huge stress on staff, many of whom are seeing caseloads expand. The resource implications of this were staggering, said Matt Dunkley, president of the Association of Directors of Social Services.

But it was not just fear of another Baby P that saw social workers apply to take more youngsters into care. Most children who go into care do so as a result of concerns that they are being neglected, not that they are at risk of physical violence or sexual abuse. The increase in applications, say professionals, reflects a greater appreciation of the impact on children of parental neglect, emotional abuse and domestic violence.

Is neglect and emotional abuse growing? Anecdotally, social workers are reporting that they are seeing more instances of parental drug and alcohol abuse. Mental illness is increasing, both among parents and children. Some note that this perceived increase in family stress and breakdown correlates directly with the recession and public spending cuts.

Ask whether children are better off in care or with their families, however difficult the domestic circumstances, and most professionals will say it is impossible to generalise: each case must be assessed on its merits. The Department for Education insists there is no evidence that children are taken into care uneccessarily.

The care system is criticised for the poor educational outcomes of children in care; but equally, this is the most damaged and deprived cohort of children to begin with. There is no guarantee the outcome would have been better had they stayed with their family.

Few, however, would agree that the current volume of care applications is sustainable. The family courts are finding it hard to cope with the flow of cases, meaning children taken away from their family are left in limbo for months before a decision is made on their future, and stable care arrangements put in place.

The financial costs of taking a child away from its family are enormous. The annual bill for keeping a child in residential care can run into the tens of thousands. Many local authorities, faced with huge spending cuts, have up until now ringfenced child protection budgets, even while decimating youth and educational support services. But as cuts bite it is hard to see how budgets can keep a lid on the pressure caused by spiralling demand for care.

It is worth noting that not all of England’s 152 local authority children’s services departments are seeing huge increases in children being taken into care, which suggests that some councils may be better than others at managing demand.

The only real solution, say professionals, is to intervene with families before problems escalate. That means investing in a range of parental support services, like Sure Start, and other forms of early intervention. But last year’s local authority financial settlement cut early intervention grants by a fifth, and many councils are reducing Sure Start services.

The government says it wants to encourage early intervention – indeed, it is bound to the much-praised report it commissioned into child protection, by Professor Eileen Munro, which declared last year that reducing demand on children’s social services was crucial.

Managing the switch – at a time when budgets are shrinking and demand is rising – will be a key test for councils over the next few years. As one director of children’s services told me: “We cannot carry on paying for our failure to intervene [on behalf of at risk children] earlier and more effectively.”