Cornwall Council has shared that, since October 2019, there are an additional 146 children in care, bringing the total to 612.
This isn’t the only statistic that has increased – child welfare referrals are up 47%, with more than 1200 referrals every 6 months, child protection enquiries are up 104%, with over 600 new enquiries every 6 months, and child in need assessments are up 34%, with over 1100 new assessments every 6 months.
The Service Director for Cornwall Council’s Children’s Services believes this strain on their services is related to the recent pandemic.
“Life has gotten much harder for many families in Cornwall, and we have had to respond creatively to children and families changing needs,” said Ben Davies.
This comes after an increase in families struggling to cope following the consequences of the pandemic. A 2021 study determined that the pandemic intensified challenges for those living in poverty, battling with mental health issues or dealing with disabilities.
Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland also found that, due to the lockdown, decreased interaction in the community meant safeguarding for children was lacking, as it often depends on people spotting something is wrong.
However, the pandemic isn’t the sole reason. Since April 2022, Cornwall has welcomed over 95 children seeking asylum. Having been separated from their parents, these children have fled their countries due to war and famine.
This is due to the National Transfer Scheme, which states that local authorities such as Cornwall must offer care and accommodation to children seeking asylum, the youngest having arrived in Cornwall at 13.
When asked about how the Council has adapted to the added pressures on their services, Ben Davies said “Our approach is to really focus on innovation, thinking about how we can do things differently to meet children’s needs earlier and more effectively, rather than just trying to do ‘more of the same’.
This has clearly paid off – Cornwall Council’s Children’s Services were recently rated “Good with Outstanding features” by Ofsted following their July inspection.
The inspection focused on all the sectors provided by the Children and Family services, as well as the quality of their social work.
The impact of leaders on social work practice with both children and families, alongside the experiences of children who need protection, the experience of children in care, and the overall effectiveness of their services all received a “Good” grade.
The experience and progress of care leavers was given a result of “Outstanding”.
Ofsted noted that the quality of the Council’s work with children seeking asylum is a “major strength”, and that children separated from their families are “welcomed warmly and with compassion” to Cornwall.
They also highlighted the Council’s “high quality” support to children in need, child protection planning, and their edge of care services that help children remain with families rather than unnecessarily going into care.
Despite being low funded, with a budget of £97.81m for 2024-2025, and dealing with an increase in demand for its services, the council was deemed highly efficient.
However, Ofsted also identified four key areas that need improvement.
This includes the timeliness of child protection strategy meetings, the effectiveness of pre-proceedings work, the quality of public law outline letters, and day-to-day monitoring arrangements for children living in unregistered homes.
Action plans have already been put in place to strengthen these areas, including introducing required weekly visits to children living in unregistered care. These occur when there is no suitable registered foster home for a child, and so instead they are kept under strict watch.
When talking about the positive Ofsted review, Davies went on to say, “We have an awesome team of staff who are incredibly committed to getting things right for children. We believe in early help – helping more children earlier, and more effectively, and we are relentlessly focused on trying to continuously improve.”
Barbara Ellenbroek, cabinet member for children and families at Cornwall Council, said: “It is fantastic news that our children’s services have been given the recognition they deserve by Ofsted.”
“It is one of the council’s key priorities to make Cornwall a brilliant place to be a child and grow up and I am incredibly proud of the services we provide to make this a reality for young people.”