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The family backgrounds of 2500 children admitted to care in England were investigated, to quantify the association between indicators of material and social deprivation and entry to care. These indicators are more closely associated than in Packman's national survey of 1962. Broken family is the most significant factor, though there are several alternative explanations for this, which have quite different policy implications. When allowance is made for other social factors, children from particular ethnic minorities do not seem specially vulnerable, though children of mixed race are. The study confirms that many children who come into care after an offence have experienced similar deprivations to nonoffenders. There remain great variations between authorities in children's routes into care, but less so in the circumstances of the children themselves.
Bebbington et al. (Sun,) studied this question.