More children are in care in poorer neighbourhoods - are you saying poor people are worse parents?

No. Parents in poverty can be just as caring and supportive as wealthier parents (and of course children in better off families can suffer adverse experiences too). It's the extra pressures on poorer parents that make it more likely that problems will occur and relationships will break down - debt, bad housing conditions, insecure tenancies and precarious employment to mention just a few.

The relationship between disadvantage and children needing more help and protection is complex, and explored by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Coventry University's Child Welfare Inequalities Project.