Care Crisis Review: Factors contributing to national increases in numbers of looked after children and applications for care orders

This report provides a synthesis of findings from key research studies and literature. The work began with a collation of evidence presented at the seminars hosted by the Nuffield Foundation and Lancaster University that underpinned the Care Crisis Review. It then drew on:
• further analysis of research and administrative data undertaken by seminar participants
• national administrative datasets for English and Wales
• a scoping exercise for the Family Justice Observatory
• reports from other recent relevant inquiries
• previous relevant recent reviews of research
• Care Crisis Review family survey results
• Care Crisis Review professional survey results
• written evidence submitted to the Care Crisis Review
• discussions at consultation events for the Care Crisis Review
The identification of key research and data sources was also assisted by an Academic Advisory Group.
The scoping exercise suggested that in recent years, social work practitioners in some local authorities have not been supported to apply the principles, rights and duties underpinning the Children Act 1989. The Review therefore had a particular focus on the impact of principles of the Children Act 1989 on the numbers of children in care and applications for care proceedings. Consequently some of the statistics presented cover the period since the early days of the implementation of the Children Act.
A thorough literature review that underpinned recent research on looked after children in Wales noted there is a paucity of research on looked after children in Wales (Elliott, 2018). Most of the research that is referenced in the report therefore relates only to looked after children in England.
There is also a paucity of research on fathers involved in the child welfare and family justice systems. The majority of the findings that are reported therefore concern mothers.
The main findings from the Review have influenced the structure of the report. The Review found many overlapping factors that are contributing to the increasing numbers, which are complex and difficult to disentangle. It found little evidence which helped to evaluate the relative impact of these individual factors, and their relative impact over time. It also found little evidence which helped to explain the impact of different combinations of the factors. It did, however, find much regional and local variation, suggesting that how the various factors interplay at the local level has a significant impact on demand for care.
After introducing the nature of the ‘crisis’ and describing the children and parents who are affected by it, the report includes a section on each of the four broad and inter-linked categories of factors that were identified during the course of the Review:
• socio-economic
• legal and policy frameworks
• professional practices
• nature of cases
There is a list of key points at the end of each section that draws together key messages about ‘what we know’ and ‘what we don’t know’ about these contributory factors. The conclusion highlights possible future work that should improve the evidence base about factors that drive the demand for care.