Children & Young People’s Needs Assessment (CYPNA)

Joint Strategic Needs Assessments (JSNAs) are local assessments of current and future health and social care needs that could be met by the local authority or the NHS. They contain a range of quantitative and qualitative evidence, and focus on specific groups and issues relevant to the local area. This is the latest in a series of JSNAs that the Doncaster Data Observatory has produced, which relating to Children and Young People.

Key themes:

Safe

1. Children and young people have access to the right services at the earliest opportunity
2. Domestic abuse practice is transformed across Doncaster
3. Ensure no child or young person suffers from neglect
4. Teenagers and older children remain safe

Healthy

5. Children have the best start in life
6. Children and young people are healthy and have a sense of wellbeing
7. Children and young people’s development is underpinned through a healthy lifestyle

Achieve

8. Ensure all children are school ready
9. All children and young people attend a good or better setting and aspirations are raised to ensure they reach their full potential
10. Young people are equipped to access education, employment or training

Economic

11. Diminish the difference between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged children and young people
12. Fewer children and young people live in poverty

Headline Findings:

Population: The biggest change in the population of children and young people between 2011 and 2014 has been an increase in the 5-9 year old age group and a decrease in the 15-19 year old age group.

Ethnicity: Doncaster in comparison to the national and regional averages does not have a high proportion of children from non-white ethnic groups. According to the 2016 School Census 88% of school children are in the White British ethnic group. This compares to 77% in Yorkshire and Humber and 72% across England.

Priority 1: In 2016, over one quarter (27%) of enquiries for Early Help relate to children aged between 8 and 11 years old. 55% of enquiries related to boys. There is a trend for enquiries relating to girls (7-10 years) to be younger than boys (9-12 years).

Priority 2: Across the four locality areas, domestic violence was identified as a factor in a higher proportion of assessments within Central area (45% of assessments completed) than the other three areas. A higher proportion of assessments completed for younger children, identified domestic violence as a factor with 50% of assessments completed for children aged three and under identifying domestic abuse, compared to 30% for children aged twelve or over.

Priority 3: At the end of March 2016 approximately 78% of children in need had abuse/neglect identified as their primary need. This is a significantly higher rate than the national figure (50%) or statistical neighbour authorities (56%).

Priority 4: In 2016, 1148 missing episodes were recorded, relating to 463 children. This reflects the fact that some children will go missing more than once. In 2016, over a quarter (27%) of missing episodes are “one-offs” where it relates to a child going missing once during this period. However, of the 463 children who went missing in 2016, 21 (5%) accounted for 31% of all missing episodes.

Priority 5: the infant mortality rate in Doncaster (2013 to 2015) equated to 5.2 per 1000 children, higher the national average of 3.9 and the regional average of 4.3 per 1000 children.

Priority 6: During 2013/2014, 130 children and young people were admitted to acute wards due to self-harm whereas the number fell to 109 in 2014/2015. The caveat to this data is that it includes alcohol poisoning so it must be interpreted with this consideration.

Priority7: In Doncaster there were 186 conceptions in 2014 amongst the under 18 year old cohort. The conception rate across Doncaster is 34.6 per 1000 for 15 to 17 year olds, higher than both the regional average (26.4) and the national average (22.8)

Priority 8: In 2016, the percentage of pupils reaching a good level of development in Doncaster (69.7%) is higher than the national average (69.3%). Pupils in the South locality performed higher than the national average, the East and North are comparable whereas Central pupils achieved slightly below the national average.

Priority 9: Pupils eligible for free school meals fall further behind their peers than is typically the case nationally. In Central and South, this gap is only slightly wider than national, but it is noticeably wider in the East and significantly wider in the North.

Priority 10: The proportion of young people aged 16–18 that are known to be ‘not in education, employment or training’ (NEET) is slightly higher than the national average, particularly in the Central and North localities.

Priority 11: In 2016 in England, fewer pupils are eligible for, and claiming, free school meals (FSM) than in January 2015, in both primary and secondary schools.

Priority 12: 51,900 households in Doncaster have a dependent child or young person aged under 16 resident with them, and of these, 23.7% (12,300) were defined as workless in 2014, a 13.4% increase from the previous year. This contrasts with the general trend away from worklessness in the wider Doncaster population, indicating that worklessness has disproportionately affected those with dependent children aged under 16.