The figures in your article (One in 52 Blackpool children in care as poverty soars in north of England, 17 April) used to illustrate the north-south divide in the proportion of children placed in care in England are counts of children who are currently in care at a single point in time.
However, these data snapshots do not present the full picture, as they do not account for the complexity of care histories. A child can enter and exit care, sometimes repeatedly throughout childhood, and stay for varying lengths of time.
By combining multiple years of data, I calculated the proportion of children who were ever placed in care from birth to age 18. Overall, one in 30 children in England who were born between 1992 and 1994 were ever placed in care (3.3%). This is roughly equivalent to one child in every classroom.
There was considerable variation between local authorities. The highest proportion was in the north, in Manchester, where one in 15 children (6.9%) were ever placed in care; however, this was closely followed by Westminster and Croydon in the south (6.7% and 6.5% respectively).
For most children who are placed in care in England, it is a short-term intervention. Short-term placements are undoubtedly necessary in certain circumstances and can have a profound positive impact on children’s wellbeing; for instance, when they are used to remove a child from a harmful situation or to respond to an acute crisis.
However, given the high costs associated with short care placements, perhaps there is greater scope for the use of supportive in-home interventions that meet the needs of children within their family and address the structural disadvantages they face.
Dr Louise Mc Grath-Lone
UCL Social Research Institute