- Children in care disproportionally criminalised, being 10 times more likely to ever be cautioned or convicted than peers
- ‘Over policing’ of children in care – children living in children’s homes more likely to be criminalised, especially children from black or mixed ethnic backgrounds, with girls more likely to receive a caution or conviction than other girls in care
- Children’s Commissioner calls for urgent change to address this, welcoming plans by Government to review the protocol used by professionals to consider their treatment of a child in care
Society is systematically failing some of the most vulnerable children in the country, as children in care are treated disproportionately as criminals, new analysis from the Children’s Commissioner shows.
Half of children in care (49%) who were ever given a caution or criminal conviction came into contact with the justice system only after they went into care, not before – and children in care are 10 times more likely than other children to ever receive a caution or conviction.
It comes as the Ministry of Justice announces a review into strengthening the ‘National Protocol’ – one of the urgent reforms being called for by the Children’s Commissioner in response to today’s research. The protocol aims to prevent professionals subjecting children in care to discrimination by considering whether their behaviour would still lead to arrest if they lived with their family. The government has today confirmed it will identify improvements to stop the unnecessary and preventable criminalisation of children in care and care-experienced people, putting the focus on support over criminal sanctions.
Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza said:
“Children in care are far too often stigmatised, even sidelined. Their voices are deemed unimportant; often, shamefully, because they come from some of the most challenging and most troubled backgrounds. They are considered ‘hard cases’.
“But if we are to be judged by how we treat our most vulnerable people, there can be no ‘hard cases’.
“For any other child, these would not be ‘incidents’ documented in writing. They would be handled by parents or other caregivers in private, where children are allowed to be children.
“When it comes to children in care, we take away their innocence. They are criminalised for lashing out and damaging property, often with the staff tasked with caring for them the ones who call the police.
“As Children’s Commissioner, a question that guides me every day is “would this be good enough for my child – or for yours?” If the answer is no, then we must step up and do better.”
This latest report from the Children’s Commissioner, published just days after she delivered the prestigious Longford Lecture on prison reform on Tuesday night, reveals a deeply troubling pattern of ‘over-policing’ children living in care, with adults responding to them not with care and support, but with retribution and punishment instead – up to and including a criminal record.
Data suggests children living in children’s homes are more likely to be criminalised. Those from black or mixed ethnic backgrounds are the most likely to receive a caution or conviction while living there.
Among all children in care, boys were almost four times more likely to have ever been found guilty than girls – but when looking at children who were sentenced for a crime while living in a children’s home, this was less than twice as likely, suggesting children’s homes expose girls to a disproportionate level of risk.
Children in care who had no previous history of offending were frequently charged with offences such as assault or criminal damage under the value of £5,000 – behaviours and issues that, in any other home, would be treated with care, understanding, and support, not police intervention.
Many children in care have experienced abuse, neglect or even the most extreme end of poverty – previous work by the Children’s Commissioner in February 2025 shows that two in five children living in the secure estate have special educational needs, and 90% come from the poorest neighbourhoods. Yet, instead of helping these children and young people recover from these compound disadvantages, the justice system often worsens their trauma by placing them in violent environments, where educational opportunities are limited and reports of sexual abuse by staff are not uncommon.
Today’s report finds systemic inequality and disparity in the treatment of children by gender, placement type and ethnicity:
- Girls in care are at particular risk. Nearly one in five (19%) of all girls in England who were ever cautioned or convicted had their first contact with the criminal justice system after entering care – twice the rate of boys (9%).
- Children in children’s homes are especially vulnerable: More than a third (37%) of those sentenced for offences committed in care were living in a children’s home at the time, despite only 12% of children in care living in such settings.
- Racial inequalities are widespread: Among those living in children’s homes, black children are around 14% more likely to receive a caution or conviction than their white peers.
- Disproportionate sentencing: By age 24, 15% of children in care had received an immediate custodial sentence compared to fewer than 1% of children who had not been in care.
The Commissioner’s report also exposed a worrying lack of transparency and oversight around police involvement. Only nine in 43 police forces in England and Wales were able to provide data on call outs to children’s homes, with 4,627 reported attendances. Notably, Ofsted data on all notifications across the whole of England only shows 2,281 call outs – roughly half of those reported by the 9 police forces – demonstrating thousands of police incidents are judged not to meet the threshold for notifying Ofsted.
Despite all forces being required to have protocols in place for reducing the criminalisation of children in care – which are intended to encourage professionals to consider whether a child’s behaviour would lead to arrest if they lived with their family – only three forces mentioned a protocol in place when asked what they were doing to reduce the criminalisation of children in care.
In response, the Commissioner is calling for comprehensive measures to tackle the disproportionate criminalisation of children in care. These include:
- An enhanced, reformed joint protocol between the Ministry of Justice, Department for Education and the Home Office that ends the unnecessary criminalisation of children in care. The Government has today confirmed it will take forward a review of this protocol to identify improvements that better support children in care – now that review must look at making it statutory, applied consistently across all local authorities and police forces, with a clear plan to monitor how effectively it is used.
- Nationwide youth services established through the forthcoming national Youth Strategy with a focus on quality youth work to divert vulnerable children who interact with the care system away from violence and criminality, removing unnecessary barriers to programmes that help. It should also give access to therapeutic support for all child victims, through a national network of Child Houses modelled on Camden’s Lighthouse.
- Transforming the prosecution process to ensure it is child friendly, with specialist training for lawyers and stronger safeguards by the Crown Prosecution Service.
- Investing in high-quality, stable homes so children are not placed far from their families or in unstable settings – ending sibling separation or children being forced into settings that cannot meet their needs; and
- Closure of all YOIs, with a clear plan to replace settings with a network of more supportive alternative settings that can better meet children’s needs. All children in custody should be considered looked after children.
