THE rate of children in care in the Dorset County Council area has fallen to its lowest level since 2015, new figures have shown.
Despite a small decline compared to 2016 and 2017, 59.4 per 10,000 children were in care – 50 per cent higher than the level in 2012.
A report to the council’s safeguarding overview and scrutiny committee says that the decrease was partly due to “improved multi-agency working”.
“There has also been a focus on preventing children coming into care in the first place,” it adds.
“One of the ways of doing this is through the family focus team, which undertakes intensive family work to try to prevent children coming into care or in supporting children to return home.
“The family focus team was one of the first teams to adopt the ‘whole family’ approach to working, which is the principle that underpins Dorset Families Matter (DFM) and family partnership zones.”
There has also been a decline in the rate of children subject to a child protection plan and it is now at its lowest level since 2014.
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