Children’s services in the North face a £25bn care burden due to ‘deeply rooted social inequalities’ and the ‘North-South divide’, a new report has revealed.
Published by Health Equity North on behalf of the Child of the North All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), the report shows the disproportionately high rates of children in care in the North when compared to the South.
The study found that in the North, the rate of children in care per 10,000 of the child population is 93, compared to 62 in the rest of England.
It also calculated that if the North had experienced the same care entry rates as the South between 2019 and 2023, it would have saved at least £25bn in lifetime social costs of children in care.
Dr Davara Bennett, lead author of the report and Public Health, Policy & Systems at the University of Liverpool, said: ‘Our report has exposed the deeply rooted social inequalities reflected in, and exacerbated by, the child welfare system. These need to be tackled head-on by policymakers.
‘Local authorities are trapped in a cycle of ever-greater spend on children in care, at the expense of investment in effective support for families in need. The evidence shows the damage caused by cuts to prevention and failure to address the very real problem of child poverty in the North.’
