Storing up trouble - a postcode lottery of children's social care

In September 2017, the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Children (APPGC) launched an inquiry into the causes and consequences of varying thresholds for children's social care.

The Inquiry's findings are published in the report 'Storing up trouble: a postcode lottery of children's social care'.

This report builds on the findings of the APPGC's first inquiry into the state of children’s social care in England, No Good Options (March 2017), which shone a light on a system struggling to manage increasing and more complex demand in the context of dwindling resources. The inquiry also heard that approaches to policy and practice varied across the country, with children, young people and families were receiving different levels of support and care.

The APPGC wanted to explore these findings further and find out the extent to which thresholds for accessing services vary across the country and whether thresholds are rising.

In other words, does where a child lives affect their chances of getting support, whatever their level of need, and is it getting generally harder for children and families to get help? The inquiry also sought to gather evidence on what underlies these patterns and trends, and what impact they are having on children and families.

The Inquiry found that:

Vulnerable children face a postcode lottery in thresholds of support
4 in 5 Directors of Children’s Services say that vulnerable children facing similar problems get different levels of help depending on where they live.
Children often have to reach crisis before social services step in.
Decisions over whether to help a child, even in acute cases, are influenced by budget constraints.
Children and young people in care and care leavers highlighted the difficulty they faced gaining insight into their personal histories. They called for better support in accessing and understanding information contained in official files.