Howard League research finds children’s homes calling the police 200 times a year

Children’s homes in parts of England are calling the police as many as 200 times a year, putting children in residential care in danger of being criminalised, research by the Howard League for Penal Reform reveals today (Monday 8 July).

The charity has analysed data provided by police forces, who between them received almost 23,000 call-outs from children’s homes in 2018. The figures show that while some homes do not call the police at all, others pick up the phone again and again.

The Howard League sent Freedom of Information Act requests to all police forces in England and Wales, asking for data for call-outs from children’s homes. Each force was directed to a list of Ofsted-regulated children’s homes in its area, which is regularly provided by Ofsted to the chief constable. Twenty-six forces were able to provide data.

Five police forces reported having a home in their area that had called them more than 200 times – Derbyshire (267 call-outs), South Yorkshire (253), Humberside (235), Suffolk (209) and Northumbria (207). Most forces reported having been called out more than 100 times by individual homes. 

The figures are published in ‘Know your numbers’: Using data to monitor and address criminalisation, the fifth briefing from the Howard League’s programme to end the criminalisation of children in residential care.

The briefing suggests that, although some children’s homes are calling the police excessively, efforts to reduce criminalisation are now having an impact. The proportion of children formally criminalised while in residential care was reduced from 15 per cent to 10 per cent between 2014 and 2018.

This is a step in the right direction after the Howard League called on children’s homes, police and the government to do more to prevent criminalisation. The charity began campaigning on the issue in 2016 after government figures revealed that children living in children’s homes were more likely to be criminalised than other children, including those in other types of care placement. 

Frances Crook, Chief Executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: “A child living in residential care has more often than not experienced a range of problems early in life, from acute family stress to abuse and neglect. These children need nurture and support, not repeated contact with the police and criminalisation.

“But our research shows that some children’s homes are picking up the phone again and again over matters that would never involve the police if they happened in a family home.

“While the figures we publish today show there is some way to go before the police and children’s homes properly understand the scale of the problem, official figures from the Department for Education suggest the efforts of the Howard League and others are now having an impact. We need to see everyone build on this, with more action to stop children in residential care having their lives blighted with a criminal record.”

The briefing calls on police forces and the government to improve their recording practices and interrogate their data to better understand the scale of criminalisation of children in residential care.

Currently, the Department for Education (DfE) only collects criminalisation data for children who have been looked after continuously for the last 12 months. This means that there are a large number of children who have been looked after for shorter periods – 26,680 during the year 2017-18 – for whom levels of criminalisation are unknown.

Almost half the calls to police from children’s homes in 2018 were in response to children going missing. This is critical information as missing incidents appear to be a factor in high rates of criminalisation, for reasons that are complex and individual to each child.

Some children will be going missing because they are being criminally exploited, perhaps in order to run drugs. Others will be criminalised as a result of having gone missing, perhaps trying to get home, for related incidents such as stealing to survive.

A Freedom of Information request submitted to the DfE by the Howard League revealed that 77 per cent of children who had been formally criminalised while living in a children’s home between April 2017 and March 2018 had gone missing from placement at some point during the course of the year.

The briefing also raises concerns about the potential criminalisation of children living in semi-independent homes that are not subject to the Children’s Homes Regulations and are not regulated by Ofsted. More than 2,000 children were living in this type of accommodation at the end of March 2018.

Police, children and others have told the Howard League that they are worried about unnecessary criminalisation of children in unregulated placements. There are also safeguarding issues, and the charity has heard reports that children in these settings are vulnerable to exploitation by people involved in crime, including those running ‘county lines’.

LGA RESPONDS TO THE HOWARD LEAGUE REPORT ON POLICE CALL-OUTS TO CHILDREN’S HOMES

Responding to The Howard League for Penal Reform’s report highlighting how police are called to children’s homes around 200 times a year, Cllr Anntoinette Bramble, Chair of the Local Government Association’s Children and Young People Board, said:

“Councils and their partners have been working hard to reduce the criminalisation of children in care, and it is positive to see this work having a real impact.

“However, as this report rightly shows, there is clearly more still to be done, and councils will continue to drive improvements with the support of the police, children's home providers and others to prevent more children in residential care being unnecessarily criminalised.

“Some calls to the police are genuine concerns for the welfare of a child in their care. It is always extremely worrying when a child goes missing from care and councils are working hard to keep children safe and give them the support they need.

"However, significant increases in demand for child protection services, alongside funding cuts from central government, mean that children’s services face a £3.1 billion funding gap by 2025.

“This is preventing councils from investing at the level they would like in the accommodation and support options needed to provide the best and most appropriate help for all children and young people.

“This is why it is essential that Government uses the forthcoming Spending Review to address the £3.1 billion shortfall in children’s services by 2025.”