Children in Care and Care Leavers

This topic area covers statistics and information relating to looked after children and care leavers in Hull including local strategic need and service provision. General information relating to children and young people is covered within Children and Young People, and detailed information on our Young People Health and Wellbeing Surveys is covered within Tools and Resources.

This page contains information from the Office for Health Improvement & Disparities’ Fingertips. Information is taken ‘live’ from the site so uses the latest available data from Fingertips and displays it on this page. As a result, some comments on this page may relate to an earlier period of time until this page is next updated (see review dates at the end of this page).

Headlines

• As at 31 March 2023, there were a total of 773 children in care in Hull (128 children per 10,000 population). This is 12th highest across the 145 upper-tier local authorities in England and almost twice as high as the national average. However, there had been a considerable decrease from 31 March 2021 when Hull was seventh highest nationally (out of 147) and there were 947 children in care in Hull (160 per 10,000 population).
• In Hull, one-third of looked after children have emotional wellbeing which is a cause for concern, although this is slightly lower than England.
• Eight in ten of looked after children in Hull had their childhood vaccinations in 2023 compared to 82% for England and 88% for the Yorkshire and the Humber region. There was a sharp decrease during the pandemic, however levels appear to have returned to normal.
• For children leaving school, the average attainment 8 score of all children in Hull was 43.8 but this was only 23.4 for children in care for 2020/21 with scores almost half that for children in care. However, a similar large gap in the average attainment 8 score was observed for England (48.8 versus 20.3). There were no examinations in the 2019/20 and 2020/21 school years due to the COVID-19 pandemic with scores and grades determined on the basis of coursework and other factors for these two years, and the average attainment 8 score was higher for both of these years prior to the 2018/19 school year. For all pupils in Hull, in 2021/22, the average attainment 8 score was similar in 2021/22 as it has been in 2018/19 prior to the pandemic (43.8 versus 43.9), although for children in care, the percentage was higher for the latest year compared to the 2018/19 school year (23.4 versus 15.5).

The Population Affected – Why Is It Important?

When a child or young person is cared for by the local authority this is called being looked after. Children and young people can be looked after for long or short periods of time. A child can become looked after for lots of reasons, but the main reasons are:

• if a child breaks the law, the court can decide that they should be looked after.
• if a child has been harmed and needs to be protected, a court can make an order that they should be looked after. This is called a care order.
• a parent can ask the local authority to look after their child, usually for a short time, if they are having family problems, are unwell or need a break.
• out of area looked after children placed in Hull.

If a court decides that the local authority should look after a child, the local authority has responsibility for them. If a parent has asked the local authority to accommodate their child, the child’s parents are still responsible for them. The local authority always work closely with children, their parents and families to make sure that they take their views into account in any decisions that are made. There are also a number of looked after children placed in Hull from other local authorities.

The local authority draws up a care plan when a child first becomes looked after. The plan lays out what help and support the child and their family need, and how the local authority will help them to get it. They talk to the child and the other people involved in their life, such as parents, carers, teachers, health visitors and other people who know them. As things change over time, the care plan needs to be looked at regularly to make sure it’s up to date and still works, through a looked after children review.

A local authority will:

• help children and families who are having difficulties dealing with everyday family life.
• protect children who are at risk of abuse and neglect.
• look after children who, for a variety of reasons, can not live at home.
• provide advice and support through key workers to families and children experiencing difficulties.
• advise about rights and benefits.
• prepare young people in care for independent living.
• work with families in a preventative way, supporting families so that, wherever possible, children can stay in their own homes rather than go into care.
• provide respite and emergency fostering services.

Looked after children come from a range of different backgrounds and have varied experiences of care. Each child has their own different and specific set of needs. However, almost all children in care are from backgrounds of deprivation, poor parenting, abuse and neglect. These experiences can leave children with complex emotional and mental health needs, and social and behavioural difficulties which can increase their vulnerability to abuse.

Research suggests that when looked after children are compared with children who have not been in care, they tend to have poorer outcomes in a number of areas such as educational attainment and mental and physical health. However, this is not necessarily the case when they are compared with other groups of children who are likely to have had similar experiences, such as children in need. One study found that looked after children who were continuously in care in England had better educational attainment than children in need.

The Hull Picture

As at 31 March 2023, there were a total of 773 children in care in Hull (128 children per 10,000). This is the 12th highest rate of 145 upper tier local authorities in England, and the second highest in the region, and almost twice as high as the England average.

The Office for Health Improvement & Disparities’ Fingertips provides information on the numbers of children in care. The information given is the number of children as at 31 March in the specified year given as a rate per 10,000 children.

Between 2010/11 and 2015/16, the rate of looked after children was 120 children per 10,000 children or slightly lower, but has been increasing since 2015/16, reaching a peak of 160 per 10,000 children in 2020/21. The rate has decreased in the last two years, although is still very high. The rate in Hull was seventh highest rate of the 147 upper tier local authorities in England for both 2020/21 and 2021/22, but for 2022/23, it is now the 12th highest (out of 145).

Information is available on the percentage of looked after children whose emotional wellbeing is a cause for concern. This relates to children aged 5-16 years at the date of their latest assessment who have been in care for at least 12 months on the 31 March of the year whose strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ) score is 17 or more.

The percentage in Hull for 2022/23 at 42% which is higher than England but lower tha the Yorkshire and Humber region.

There has been some year-on-year variation in the percentage of looked after children whose emotional wellbeing is a cause for concern, but the rate has been statistically similar to England (and for 2018/19 was significantly lower than England).

Outcomes for young people leaving school are much poorer among looked after children with considerably lower average Attainment 8 scores. The average Attainment 8 score for all children in Hull for 2021/22 was 43.8 (and 42.2 for 2022/23), but only 23.4 among children in care for 2021/22.

Attainment 8 measures achievements of a pupil across eight qualifications including mathematics and English with the latter two subjects double-weighted. Essentially this means that the highest score a pupil can achieve is 90 as the highest score in a single qualification is 9 thus there are 72 points for 8 qualifications but a further 18 points to add for mathematics and English as they are included twice. Only qualifying subjects count so if a pupil achieves eight GCSEs but only six of them are in qualifying subjects then they will score lower as two subjects will not be scored or counted. So comparisons depend on the range of subjects taken by pupils, and some independent schools may have other qualifications which don’t count towards the Attainment 8 score.

The overall Attainment 8 scores increased in 2019/20 and 2020/21 and then decreased in 2021/22 to levels similar to those observed in 2018/19. It is difficult to ascertain the overall trend in recent years because there were no examinations in 2019/20 and 2020/21 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Qualifications and educational attainment were determined on the basis of coursework and other factors for these two years. This means that the results in 2019/20 and 2020/21 are not comparable with earlier years.

However, between 2021/22 (the first year there were examinations following the pandemic) and 2022/23, there has been a decrease overall. For children in care their Attainment 8 scores also increased between 2018/19 and 2020/21 due to the pandemic, although there has also been an increase subsequently and as a result, the percentages in Hull for 2021/22 is higher than it was prior to the pandemic in 2018/19. Despite the increase, the percentage is only slightly over half the percentage for children overall.

The percentage of children in care who had been looked after for at least a year at the 31 March who had had their childhood vaccinations in the 2023 calendar year was one of the lowest in the Yorkshire and the Humber region with 80.0% of children in care having their childhood vaccinations in Hull.

Between 2014 and 2017, the percentage of children in care who had had their vaccinations was similar to or higher than England, but since 2018 the percentages have decreased considerably in Hull particularly between 2020 and 2021. Examining the take up figures for Hull alone, it might be speculated that the reductions were due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however, this was not the case for England or across the region were rates only fell by one or two percentages points between 2019 and 2021. That said, for Hull, the figure increased sharply in 2022, to 87.0%, a level not seen since 2017. However, this has been followed by a decrease to 80.0% for 2023.

For 2023, just under 120 children in care did not have their childhood vaccinations.

Strategic Need and Service Provision

Hull City Council’s ‘looked after children pledge’ is of significant importance in relation to this very special group of children and young people, and it confirms the commitment to them as corporate parents.

The Pledge has been developed working with children and young people in Hull who have experience of being looked after, and focuses specifically on what they need from the local authority to do to support them in reaching their full potential.

As background, in 2007 the Government released a White Paper entitled ‘Care Matters, Time for Change’. The recommendations from this White Paper were aimed at improving outcomes for looked after children and young people. One of these recommendations was that each local authority would develop a ‘Children in Care Council’ (CiCC). The main aim of the CiCC was to develop a pledge to looked after children which would be adopted by the local authority and be unique to their area. Once adopted the Pledge would provide each CiCC across the country with a benchmark from which to measure the effectiveness of the services children and young people in care receive. It was left to each local authority to determine who should facilitate, maintain and develop the Children in Care Councils. In Hull the job was given to the ‘Rights and Participation Project’, (RAPP), as they had a history of working creatively and consulting with looked after children. In 2008 RAPP invited a group of children and young people in care to come together to begin discussing the idea of a CiCC. They decided at this point to call the group ‘Young Voices in Care’ (YVIC). YVIC began the process of gathering the views of children and young people about the pledge and what should be included. Some of the group attended National Conferences which gave them an idea as to how others were progressing. By August 2011 the pledge was complete.

Hull City Council’s pledge to children and young people –

• support you in reaching your dreams.
• help you to have fun and get involved in clubs and activities so that you make new friends and develop your interests.
• provide you with a safe and comfortable home where you can feel part of a family or group.
• keep you safe from harm where you live, at school and in the city.
• support and guide you with any health or emotional needs.
• help you to get quick and useful information and appointments.
• help you to do the best you can at school and give you support with reading, writing, maths or any other subjects when you need it.
• support you in taking up education and training opportunities after you leave school.
• support you to become successful adults with a positive future.

Resources

The Office for Health Improvement & Disparities’ Fingertips: https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/

Rahilly T and Hendry E. Promoting the wellbeing of children in care: messages from research, 2014.

Bazalgette L, Rahilly T, and Trevelyan T. Achieving emotional wellbeing for looked after children: a whole system approach, 2015.

Luke N, et al. What works in preventing and treating poor mental health in looked after children? 2014.

Sebba J, et al. The educational progress of looked after children in England: linking care and educational data, 2015.

Updates

This page was last updated / checked on 17 June 2024.

This page is due to be updated / checked in December 2024.