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Austerity, Poverty, and Children’s Services Quality in England: Consequences for Child Welfare and Public Services

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2022

Calum J. R. Webb Open the ORCID record for Calum J. R. Webb [Opens in a new window] ,
Davara L. Bennett  and
Paul Bywaters
Calum J. R. Webb
Affiliation:
Sheffield Methods Institute, the University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK E-mail: c.j.webb@sheffield.ac.uk
Davara L. Bennett
Affiliation:
Institute of Population Health Sciences, the University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK E-mail: davara.bennett@liverpool.ac.uk
Paul Bywaters
Affiliation:
Centre for Applied Childhood, Youth, and Family Research, Huddersfield University, Huddersfield, UK E-mail: p.bywaters@hud.ac.uk
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Abstract

In England, the dominant policy narrative recognises no association between spending on children’s services and quality and a limited association between quality and deprivation. We combined 374 inspection outcomes between 2011 and 2019 with data on preventative and safeguarding expenditure and Indices of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) scores. A multilevel logistic regression model predicting ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ judgements suggests each £100 increase in preventative spending per child was associated with a 69 per cent increase (95 per cent CI: 27.5 per cent, 124 per cent) in the odds of a positive inspection. A one-decile increase in deprivation was associated with a 16 per cent (95 per cent CI: −25 per cent, −5.7 per cent) decrease. Safeguarding expenditure was not associated with outcomes. Deprived communities have worse access to good-quality children’s services and government policies that have increased poverty and retrenched preventative services have likely exacerbated this inequality. Further, inattention to socioeconomic context in inspections raises concerns about their use in ‘take over’ policies.

Keywords

Child protectionearly helpchild maltreatmentOfstedinverse care law

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