Lord Meston

Information on the numbers of children in need (CIN) in England is published in the statistics release 'Children in need' in England, which is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/children-in-need/2024. The data shows that the number of CIN aged between 10 and 15 has increased over the last 10 years, but has remained stable since 2018. The number of CIN aged 16 and over has increased gradually over time from 70,680 (18% of all CIN) at 31 March 2014 to 106,780 (27% of all CIN) at 31 March 2024.

The drivers of activity in children's social care analysis highlights an increase in factors affecting teenagers in the care system, which may contribute to an increase in teenagers entering care. The analysis can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1080111/Drivers_of_Activity_in_Children_s_Social_Care.pdf.

Challenges like this are why, as part of our Plan for Change, the government is investing over £2 billion over the course of this parliament to provide more help for families and better protection for children through the Families First Partnership programme.

Through the Families First Partnership programme, backed by over £2 billion of funding between 2025/26 and 2028/29, the government is rolling out reforms to Family Help to ensure that all children, including teenagers, and their families, can access the right targeted support at the earliest opportunity.

In Family Help, multi-disciplinary teams will be embedded into the hearts of communities, providing access to a range of professionals and services tailored to local needs, including youth services. Where appropriate, youth workers can function as lead practitioners, being responsible for building relationships with, and coordinating support for, teenagers who need it.

To date, we have seen examples of local areas establishing specialist Family Help teams focused on contextual safeguarding, some of which bring together social workers and youth workers to support young people at risk of harm or experiencing exploitation.

Information on the numbers of children in need in England by gender and age as at 31 March 2024 are published in the statistics release ‘Children in need in England’. This data has been available since 31 October 2024 and can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/017e9ab0-556a-4e52-0c34-08de07233b94.

Figures for the year ending 31 March 2025 are available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/39cc1f07-37e5-4b8c-e315-08de1acd7617.

We agree that it is right to focus on improving the practical application of Gillick and the assessments of competency. We have already committed to consulting on the guidance for assessing competence in mental health settings in the revised Mental Health Act Code of Practice, with the intention to provide further clarity to decision makers. This will include engagement with key stakeholders and clinical decision makers with experience of assessing competence in children.

As part of this, we can look to summarise and explain what case law has said on how competence should be assessed, including Re S (Wardship: Removal to Ghana). It remains our position that we would not consider a statutory test in the Mental Health Act.

The Government welcomes the Civil Justice Council review of litigation funding, which will help inform the approach to potential reforms. We will outline next steps in due course.