Section 3: Social inequalities
Childhood vulnerabilities
The Children's Commissioner for England report (2019) (Children's Commissioner. CHLDRN: Childhood Local Data on Risks and Needs) on the scale and types of childhood vulnerability in England, aims to help local and national government better understand, measure and respond to the risks facing children.
Last year it showed that 2.3 million children in England were growing up with significant family risk factors such as domestic violence or parental addiction issues - of whom two thirds were receiving unclear support or were not known to local services.
The most recently available data22 shows that in Gateshead there were:
- 68 children living in temporary accommodation (in Q3 2019)
- an estimated 7600 children living in households with any of the so called 'toxic trio' issues of domestic abuse, parental mental health issues and parental drug/alcohol problems (in 2019/20)
- 4297 households with children claiming Universal Credit (in November 2019)
- 3471 children with SEND but no EHC plan (in January 2019)
- 148 children receiving treatment for substance misuse (in 2018/19)