Number of Stockton children going into care more than doubled

A Stockton Council report says 175 children and young people started in the authority’s care in 2025, compared to 67 in 2024 and 54 in 2023.

The number of children in care overall rose at a slower rate of nine per cent, reaching 615 children by the end of March.

Children had “increasingly complex needs that put pressure on families and children”, says the report which sets out the achievements and challenges in the children’s social care for the council over the past year. A leading officer has revealed the council will open three more children’s homes.

Louise Hollick, assistant director for early help, safeguarding and children in care, told councillors they still faced significant challenges, rising costs and financial pressures.

She said: “What we are seeing is more older children entering care with significant safeguarding risks, including child exploitation, neurodiversity needs, speech and language needs and trauma.

“We also see higher numbers of babies coming into care due to complexities around domestic abuse, neglect and parental substance misuse.”

She said their disabled children team also saw rising demand with more assessments and support needed for children with complex needs.

She told the council’s children and young people select committee they, like other councils, faced a “major challenge” finding children’s places.

Not enough in-house foster carers meant more children placed with independent agencies and non-council children’s homes, including “high-cost solo placements”.

“Although we have approximately 85 local placements, and new internal provision is coming online so we do have more plans to open more internal homes, the overall system remains stretched,” she added.

Asked by Councillor Sally Anne Watson how many new children’s homes were in the pipeline and how many were needed, she said they had planning permission and had just bought a three-bedroom “edge-of-care” home, meant for “teenagers who perhaps just need a short break from their parents to stabilise things with a view to them going home very quickly”.

She added: “We’ve also had permission and DfE funding to open two further therapeutic homes for children with complex mental health needs. That will be a one-bed and a two-bed.”

She said some of the children in non-council homes were still local, with a handful farther afield, and they were looking at bringing some back to Stockton, adding: “Some of those children are very settled where they are, and not all of those children are in very high-cost residential homes. So it wouldn’t be right to bring back every single one of those children.”

She told of Ofsted-recognised improvements in leadership and workforce stability, good staff feedback and more agency staff taking up permanent posts.

She said a new “front door”, the Family Help Point, launched this month involving safeguarding specialists, police, domestic abuse and substance misuse services, provided earlier help: “It’s very early days, obviously, but the first two weeks have gone really positively.”

She added they were preparing for national social care reforms, with a child protection pilot for pre-birth and babies starting soon, saying: “We will begin our pilot on May 1 for those reforms, in preparedness to have them up and running by April 2027.”

She said they were investing in their learning academy, with 12 per cent of their workforce newly qualified social workers, and “growing our own” social workers, as 90 per cent of final-year students took up permanent roles in 2025, and 91 per cent of social workers were permanent staff.

She said it was hoped a forthcoming “regional care cooperative” would transform the way fostering, residential and secure care were brought in and tackle cost challenges, and a new “Best Start Family Hub” at Redhill would strengthen early years support and help get children ready for school.

Cllr Clare Besford, cabinet member for children and young people, said: “There is so much happening in children’s services right now. On April 1 we did successfully launch our integrated front door, our Family Help Point. I’m really pleased that it went so well.”

She said the council’s Best Start In Life programme had ambitious government targets for at least 78.5 per cent of children to achieve a good level of development by the end of reception by 2028, adding: “I’m confident that we have the right team in place. We’ve got some fantastic people around the table today.”

Cllr Ann McCoy said: “I think we’ve got a lot to be proud of here and I’m sure there’ll be some real rewards for the children as well.”