Child poverty and teen pregnancy rates higher in Walsall than national average

Walsall Council is set to receive an update from the Safeguarding Children Board at its Children's Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee today about what it is doing to protect Walsall children and young people from the risk of abuse and neglect.

The news comes after it was revealed the council is predicting it could overspend by more than £700,000 in children's services by the end of the financial year - unless action is taken.

Walsall’s overall population is predicted to increase over the next few years by 5.1 per cent from 270,900 in 2012 to 284,700 in 2022.

The authority ranks as the 26th worst performing area for child poverty out of 326 local authorities in England, putting it in the worst eight per cent nationally - which is worse than back in 2006 when it was among the worst 12 per cent.

Infant mortality is 'consistently higher' than regional and national rates, and 'high levels of deprivation' are key contributing factors, according to a report set to go to the meeting.

It adds: "England and Wales is at an all-time low and continues to fall, however significant inequalities persist across the country. In Walsall figures remain high but are reducing."

Also, under 18 pregnancies are 50 per cent higher than the national average, with 31.5 for every 1,000 pregnancies as opposed to 20.8 for England.

And throughout 2017/18 4,480 children required social care intervention, a rate of 702 per 10,000 children and young people aged 0-17. At March 31, 2018, there were 2,715 children in need receiving a social care intervention, a rate of 404 per 10,000 and an increase of 104 compared with the previous year.

The report states: "Generally, data indicates that the health of children in Walsall is mixed compared with the rest of England, with 25 per cent of the attributes measured being significantly better than England and 40.6 per cent being measured as significantly worse than England.

"The latest child poverty figures for Walsall, from 2011, show that there were 16,145 children under 16 living in low income families – representing 29.2 per cent of all children in the borough. This was above both the England average of 20.6 per cent and the regional West Midlands average of 23.8 per cent."

The board was inspected by Ofsted over the summer and told that it required improvement.