Almost 1,000 Nottinghamshire children in need of support

While many of us will be tightening our belts this winter, charities are urging the public to give what they can, with thousands of young people across the country facing a tough Christmas.

Figures from the Department for Education show 962 children were being looked after by Nottinghamshire Council as of the end of March.

Of these, 636, 66 per cent, were in foster care, and 155, 16 per cent, in secure units, children's homes or semi-independent accommodation.

The same data shows there were 313 children aged under 10 being looked after by the council, and 32 unaccompanied asylum seekers.

Imran Hussain, Action for Children director of policy and campaigns, said Christmas can be “lonely and isolating” for children in care.

He said: “Away from their families and their friends, often in places far from home; many will not have happy memories of Christmas.”

Across the country, more than 80,000 children are being looked after by their local authority.

Two-thirds find themselves in the care of the council having suffered abuse or neglect – and the DfE’s figures show 488 did so in Nottinghamshire.

Mr Hussain said: “The best way to ensuring more children have safe and happy Christmases is to fix the care system.

“We need to see a big switch from a system geared to putting children into care, to a system geared to preventing the need for children to go into care in the first place.”

Up and down the country, many children will also spend the festive season facing the prospect of homelessness, or in temporary accommodation.

The most recent available figures from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities show 24,290 households with children received homelessness duties across the country between April and June – including 253 in Nottinghamshire.

Kiran Ramchandani, director of policy and external affairs at the charity Crisis, said: “Every child should have a safe place to call home.”

“Yet with living costs continuing to rise at rapid rates and a severe lack of affordable housing, many families could be forced into homelessness and face spending years living in temporary accommodation.”

Nationally, more than 120,000 children were in temporary accommodation as of the end of June, with 174 of them in Nottinghamshire.

Ms Ramchandani urged the Government to raise the housing benefit and deliver “genuinely affordable” homes, or else risk more families being forced into homelessness this winter.

Crisis has been supporting the homeless over Christmas by providing accommodation, hot food and companionship at their Skylight centres across Britain.

A Department for Education spokesman said every child “deserves a safe and secure home”.

He said: “Local authorities have a responsibility to provide appropriate care for all children in their care.”

“We are supporting them by investing millions to create high-quality, safe homes for children and removing barriers and reducing delays in adoption and improving the recruitment of foster carers,” they added.