A COUNCILLOR has warned against complacency after worrying research finds nearly 100,000 children could be in care in England in 2025.

Middlesbrough has one of the highest rates in the country for children who are looked after by the local authority.

However, the town has seen a substantial decrease in the number of under 18s in care since children’s services were rated inadequate last year.

Speaking at the children and young people’s social care and services scrutiny panel, Rachel Farnham, the Middlesbrough Council’s head of children’s social care, said: “Nationally, children looked after numbers are going up and children who have secured adoptions are going down so in Middlesbrough we have bucked both trends there.

“We have a reduction in looked after children of about 23 per cent in the last twelve months and an increase in the number of children that we are managing to get to adoption so there is a good news story in Middlesbrough.”

She went on to add the number of children looked after in Middlesbrough remains high.

When children’s services were rated inadequate in January 2020, Ofsted inspectors said that there had been “widespread failures” and children had been “chronically neglected” for too long before they were helped.

Head of children’s services Sue Butcher, said one of the reasons for the damning report was because the council was not moving children out of its care, to their forever home, as swiftly as they could have done.

However, there has been a 56 per cent increase in the number of adoption orders in Middlesbrough in 2020/21 (25 orders) compared to 2019/20 (16 orders).

As of March 31, 570 children were looked after in Middlesbrough, which is a dramatic decrease from the 702 children who were in care in September 2020.

That still leaves Middlesbrough with a rate of 172 looked after children per 10,000 under 18s, the third worst rate in the country.

Hartlepool, which has 346 looked after children, and Stoke-on Trent, which has 1,004 children in care, both also have a rate of 172.

North East Lincolnshire has the second highest rate at 173 with Blackpool the highest at 210.

At the other end of the spectrum, Wokingham in Berkshire has a rate of 24, with 101 looked after children – it is also the most affluent local authority in the country according to the UK Prosperity Index.

Elsewhere in the region, Stockton has a rate of 132 with 579 looked after children, and Redcar and Cleveland has a rate of 115 with 317 looked after children.

During the meeting, Cllr Tom Mawston brought up research commissioned by the County Councils Network which found that the number of children in care in England could reach nearly 100,000 by 2025.

As of March, there were a total of 80,852 children looked after by local authorities in England.

Even though Middlesbrough is currently going against the national trends, Cllr Mawston added: “We cannot be complacent on this issue.”

Ms Butcher said Middlesbrough needed to keep improving its practice and ensure the right resources are in place to ensure early help for families.

Cllr Alma Hellaoui pointed out issues around deprivation, adding some areas could see an increase in the number of children in care despite overall improvements in the service.

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