Children's Commissioner report on UK family life September 2022

[Tooting Carmen]

https://www.childrenscommissioner.go...ily-review.pdf

[Tooting Carmen]

Some notable stats:

• As of 2021, there are 8.2 million families with children in the UK
- 63% are married couples with children, 14% are cohabiting and 23% are headed by a lone parent. CCo’s analysis shows large variations in family composition by demographics such as ethnicity, local area, and socio-economic class.
- The rate of lone parent households in the UK is much higher than in most European countries, where the average share of families headed by a lone parent is 13%.
- Around 90% of lone parents were women. Lone parent families are more likely to be experiencing financial difficulties. In 2020, 49% of children living in lone parent families were in relative poverty after housing costs compared to 25% of children living in
married or cohabiting families.
• There has been a slight decrease in married families in the last 20 years (from 65% in 2001 to 63% in 2021) and an increase in families cohabiting (from 11 % in 2001 to 14% in 2021).
• An important change in family life over the last 20 years has been the steady increase in the employment rate for mothers (from 67% in 2002 to 76% in 2021).
• Family composition is dynamic and can change over the course of childhood. Data from the Millennium Cohort Study shows that of children born in 2000-2001, 44% do not live with both biological parents throughout their entire childhood.
• Currently, 80,850 children (0.7% of children) are looked after by the state in England, a figure that has slightly increased (by 1%) since 2020. Of these children, 4,070 (5%) are unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC). The majority of looked after children have come into care as a result of abuse or neglect (66%) or family dysfunction (14%). Other reasons include parental or child disability, a family reaching crisis point, or ‘absent parenting’.
• The majority of children in care as of March 2021 are over 10 years old (62%), with 5% under 1 year, 14% 1-4 years old and 19% 5-9 years old. Of the children in care as of March 2021, 70% have had one placement over the course of a year, 21% have had 2 placements over the course of a year and 9% have had 3 or more placements. Among those who left in care in 2021, 20% had been in care for less than a month, 68% had been in care for between a month and two years and 12% had been in care for over 2
years.
• Children in some ethnic groups are over-represented in the care system. The share of children in care who are in the White Irish Traveller/ Gypsy/ Roma ethnic group is 4.7 times the share of children in the population in this ethnic group. Children in the Mixed Other, Mixed White/Black Caribbean and Black African ethnic groups are also over-represented (3 times, 1.9 times and 1.6 times the share of children in the population). The rate of children in care varies significantly by local area. In 2021, the rate of children in care ranged from 24 per 10,000 children (0.2%) in Wokingham to 210 per 10,000 children (2.1%) in Blackpool. According to Department for Education analysis, after controlling for child, family and neighbourhood characteristics, the predicted probability of being in care ranges from 0.5% to 1.5% by local authority.
• Most children in care are living in foster homes (71%) although, 9% of children in care live in children’s homes and 5% in unregulated accommodation, such as supported flats and hostels.
• In 2021, equal proportions of families with children had one or two children (42% each) and 15% have 3 or more children. Cohabiting couple families and lone parent families tend to be smaller than married couple families. Around half of lone parents (52%) and cohabiting parents (50%) have only one dependent child, compared to 37% of married couples.
• Larger families are more likely to be experiencing financial difficulties. In 2020, 45% of children living in families with 3 or more children were in relative poverty after housing costs, compared to 35% of children living in families with 2 children and 19% of children living in families with 1 child.
• In 2021, most fathers (92%) and three quarters of mothers (76%) were employed. Data from the Labour Force Survey shows that mothers are more likely to be working part-time (35%) than fathers (6%) and that mothers are much more likely to report that they are not working because of looking after the family home (15%) than fathers (2%). Lone parents are less likely to be employed with around 50% of lone mothers of a child aged 0 to 4 employed, rising to 75% when children are aged 5 to 16.
• CCo’s analysis of the APS in 2020 shows that families of Asian descent, including those with Chinese, Indian, Bangladeshi, or Pakistani heritage are much more likely to be married. In contrast, Black Caribbean and Black African families are significantly more likely to be lone parents. Figure 1 shows that 44% of Black African, and 57% of Black Caribbean families are headed by a lone parent. There are also significant differences in family size by ethnicity, with 41% of Pakistani households with dependent children and 38% Bangladeshi households with dependent children having three or more children, compared to 14% of White family households.
• CCo’s analysis of the APS in 2020 found significant differences in family structure by religion. Figure 2 shows that while the lone parent rate is similar across most religions, the marriage rate and cohabiting rate differs across religions. Among families who are not religious, 55% are married, compared to 91% of those who are Hindu.
• CCo’s analysis of the APS in 2020 found significant differences in family structure by socio-economic status of the mother. Among mothers in the lowest socio-economic class (never worked, unemployed), 28% were in lone parent families and among mothers in the highest socio-economic class (Higher managerial and professional), 10% were in lone parent families.
• CCo’s analysis of the birth registration data in 2020 finds that family composition varies significantly by local authority. Figure 4 shows that the share of non-partnered births ranged from 5% to 31%. Research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies shows that of the differences in the non-partnered birth rate across local authorities, 35% can be explained by differences in the share of the local population unemployed and share economically inactive, 17% by differences in education, 6% by differences in age, and 6% by
differences in ethnicity.
• There have been gradual changes in the age profile of families in England and Wales, as the average age of first-time mothers increased from 27 in 2000 to 29 in 2020. The average age at marriage increased from 29 to 32 for women. There has also been gradual decrease in family size over the past two decades, with the share of families with 3 or more children decreasing from 17% in 2001 to 15% in 2021.
• One of the most striking changes in family life over the past two decades has been an increase in the employment rate for mothers, which has steadily increased almost 10 percentage points over the past two decades, from 67% in 2002 to 76% in 2021. Over the same period there has been a slight increase in the employment rate for fathers, from 90% to 92%.
• Families are spending more time in the same location doing things alone (‘alone-together’ time). Time use data shows that the average amount of time families spent in the same location but doing things alone increased from 95 minutes a day in 2000 to 136 minutes a day in 2015. Of total family time per day (6.4 hours) in 2015, 2.4 hours are spent on mobile devices.