Visualising Children’s Services Data: A composite of the Child Welfare Inequalities Project App

Abstract

The most deprived ten per cent of neighbourhoods in England have a ten times higher rate of children in the care system than the least deprived 10 per cent, and a 12 times higher rate of child protection plans (Bywaters, et al . 2018). Levels of deprivation, income inequality, higher education, and ethic density can explain almost 75 per cent of the variation in local authority rates of children in care (Webb, et al. 2021), in part because Black and Mixed Heritage children are 35 per cent to 55 per cent more likely to be in care than White children (Bywaters, et al. 2019) and have four times higher rates of care than the White British population in low deprivation areas (Webb, et al. 2020). Between 2010 and 2015, a rise in expenditure required to sustain a growing and increasingly privatised care system ( Office of the Children’s Commissioner , 2020) masked enormous reductions in expenditure on preventative services, which fell by 38 per cent on average and by 46 per cent in the most deprived 50 local authorities in England (Webb and Bywaters, 2018). This retrenchment continued throughout the remainder of the decade (Action for Children, 2020). These