ed a number of concerns about housing, from access to affordable, good quality housing, the use of temporary accommodation, overcrowding and an increasingly transient population moving around the country, typically but not exclusively from the south to the north, due to housing costs. Such moves break community links and results in disruption to health, care and education services. Many directors of children’s services voiced concerns about children’s health too, whether about lengthening delays in accessing assessment and treatment for parents and carers or children and young people themselves. The visibility and prioritisation of children’s needs and outcomes in the still relatively new integrated care system structures was also frequently raised as a key strategic concern by leaders. Perhaps unsurprisingly, there were lots of shared concerns about the SEND system too, not just about financial sustainability but the experiences of children and young people with additional needs and disabilities. As recent research has shown, we’ve never spent more in this space, but this sadly hasn’t secured any significant improvements in outcomes over the last decade. 5 The fabric of communities and the resilience of families, as well as public services, have been stretched over the last few years. This report and a growing body of evidence shows there are links between poverty and children’s social care activity. Delayed access to public services, from the NHS to the family courts, is impacting on family functioning and on children’s lives and outcomes. Andy Smith ADCS President 2024–25 6 Introduction The data explored in this report are from the ninth phase in the Safeguarding Pressures (SP) series, a unique programme of mixed methods enquiry that shines a light on the pressures f