Social services in Oxfordshire see huge influx of child cases involving neglect, alcohol, drugs and mental health

Social services’ assessments of children misusing drugs has almost doubled in the space of just two years, while there is also a rise in reports of children turning to alcohol, experiencing poor mental health or falling victim to neglect and abuse.

The number of ‘children in need’ in Oxfordshire surged from 3,917 in 2014-15 to 4,808 in 2016-17, according to new statistics released by the Department for Education.

Problems at home and bullying in school are some of the factors being blamed for a range of problems among young people, ranging from substance misuse or involvement in gangs to domestic violence or bad behaviour.

For example, the number of assessments for alcohol misuse rose from 694 to 1,147 in just two years.

Social services also spoke to youngsters aged under-17 battling with drug problems 1,134 times in 2016-16 compared to 588 times in 2014-15.

For assessments of children experiencing poor mental health, numbers shot up from 1,176 in 2014-15 to 2,004 in 2016-17.

Missing children assessments also soared from 90 to 223 over the same period.

Meetings with young people who were victims of emotional or physical abuse also each swelled by several hundred.

Oxfordshire County Council, which runs social services, accepted the issue but said child protection cases have increased nationally and the county is ‘no exception’ to the trend.

Spokesman Owen Morton said: “The number of assessments we are carrying out has increased significantly in recent years, which includes children and families assessed on more than one occasion.

“We believe some of the increase in the figures is likely to be down to raised awareness of child protection concerns among professionals and the wider public.

“Crucially, while the overall number of instances in which various [underlying] factors were recorded increased significantly between 2014 and 2017, the rate at which they were identified among the children assessed did not, and in some cases it reduced.”

Deprivation in certain areas is also being blamed as a major cause of the problems.

According to separate county council research released last week, not linked to the DfE figures, Blackbird Leys, Barton and Northfield Brook had the highest rates of children referred to social services in Oxford in 2016-17 - all areas listed in the top 20 per cent most deprived areas in England in 2015.

Across Oxfordshire, the Ruscote area of Banbury had the highest number of referrals to social services in 2016-17 - 304, compared to 172 in Blackbird Leys, which referred the second-highest number.

The report, published on the council’s data-sharing platform Oxfordshire Insight, said: “Areas of higher incidences of domestic violence notifications tend to have higher levels of social care referrals, and more children are victims of crime.

“These are also linked to levels of deprivation.”

Oxford support charity One-Eighty, based off Botley Road, works with vulnerable youngsters aged to help them overcome such issues and reintegrate them in school, widely considered to be the key to reducing the numbers.

It works with schools, social services and a network of other agencies to help children, using a range of psychology methods such as cognitive behaviour therapy.

The charity confirmed it has seen an increase in referrals.

Development manager Rebekah Sammut said the key was to understand the underlying cause of troubling behaviour.

She said: “There is an increasing recognition that, by tackling the root causes of truancy and poor behaviour, we can effect a marked improvement in young people’s lives, their families and their local community.

“In the last two years, One Eighty has worked increasingly in partnership with schools and social services to help turn around the lives of young people in Oxfordshire and beyond.

“Research suggests that if young people reintegrate into education, they are more likely to have fulfilled, happy lives and less likely to offend or become reliant on welfare and health services. “

She said poor emotional or mental health played a significant role in more than 70 per cent of young people referred to the charity in 2016-17.

Mrs Sammut added: “This arose from a range of catalysts such as family breakdown, abuse, trauma, or difficult experiences at school, such as bullying and anxiety.”

Turning to drugs and alcohol

CHILDREN are turning to drugs and alcohol to cope with wider issues of anxiety and stress, a former headteacher has said.

Chris Bryan, chair of trustees at young people’s help service The Abingdon Bridge, said: “It’s a bigger issue than alcohol and drugs - it’s a whole lifestyle.

“Suddenly friends fall away and it’s difficult to focus in school, attainment suffers and they begin to have low aspirations.”

Mr Bryan, a former head at St Birinus School in Didcot, added: “The bigger issue is stress and anxiety, which might externalise itself as drugs and alcohol.”

Oxfordshire County Council said drug misuse was a risk factor in 18.4 per cent of young people assessments last year - up from 16.76 per cent two years ago.

But it stressed this was below regional and national averages.

Alcohol misuse reduced from 19 per cent of cases to 18.6 per cent.

Dominic Barberi Multi Academy Company, which runs several Oxfordshire schools including St Gregory the Great Catholic School in East Oxford, raised the issue of drugs in its annual report.

The document, published in January, said: “The [county council] and Thames Valley Police have been engaging with schools as a result of a clear emerging trend in antisocial behaviour and cross-county drug lines running in the local area.

“This is directly affecting pupils within the St Greg’s community.”

Child gang cases quadruple

SOCIAL services’ encounters with children linked to gangs has quadrupled in the past two years.

Gang crime has persistently hit the national news headlines recently, and it seems the issue is not confined to the capital.

Oxfordshire children assessed by social services, who were found to have ‘gangs’ as an underlying factor of their vulnerability, has risen consistently in the past two years.

There was a negligible number of such cases in 2014-15, according to Department for Education figures, recorded in the table with an ‘X’ - meaning between one and five.

This rose to nine assessments relating to gangs in 2015-16, which snowballed to 36 in the 2016-17 year.

In March last year, Thames Valley’s police and crime commissioner Anthony Stansfeld spoke to the Oxford Mail regarding concerns about gangs.

He branded the use of children by drug gangs ‘despicable’, and said children as young as 13 were being targeted.

Mr Stansfeld was unavailable for yesterday to comment on the rise in assessments relating to gangs.

A report by Oxfordshire County Council released last year highlighted how cases of missing children be linked to drug running, and how it was working with police to tackle the issue.

Boys not in care, but known to social services, were found to be the most at risk of being exploited by gangs.

Though the correlation cannot be proved from the statistics alone, the new statistics suggest this might still be a linked issue.

In 2014-15 there were only 90 assessments of children with an underlying factor of ‘going or being missing’.

This increased to 181 in 2015-16, and again in 2016-17 to 223.

Mental Health

ASSESSMENTS of children experiencing mental health issues has almost doubled.

In 2016-17 social services pointed to mental health as a contributory factor in 2,004 assessments of children.

This is up from 1,461 the year before and 1,176 in 2014-15.

Linked to this, numbers of child self-harm cases also significantly increased in the same period, from 134 to 206.

The NSPCC said ‘more children than ever before’ are contacting its helpline due to serious mental health struggles, and stressed a need to ensure they gain help quickly.

A spokesperson for the charity said: “We know from calls and emails to our Childline service that hundreds of young people in Oxfordshire continue to be affected by concerns including abuse, self-harm and mental health issues.

“More than 100,000 counselling sessions [nationally] were carried out about children’s mental health problems last year alone.

“More young people than ever before tell Childline they are overwhelmed by serious mental health issues such as depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts.

“Although Childline is often the first place young people come to for help, many of these children will require help from social services or health professionals and it is vital that they receive it promptly.”

'Unacceptable' behaviour

BEHAVIOUR deemed ‘socially unacceptable’ is another key theme of assessments by social services in Oxfordshire.

In 2014-15 there were 374 assessments filed under this category, but this shot up to 626 in 2016-17.

The Department for Education’s statistics table does not define socially unacceptable behaviour, but it likely covers antisocial behaviours.

These are defined by law as behaviour ‘acting in a manner likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress’.

In October the Oxford Mail reported on a surge in school expulsions. At the time Niall McWilliams,  above, head of The Oxford Academy, said the loss of early intervention services had an impact on youngsters’ behaviour.

The most common reason for expulsion in secondary schools in 2015-16 was persistent disruptive behaviour.