Ministers do not know how many hundreds of thousands of children in England are living risky or vulnerable lives, says children’s commissioner Anne Longfield.
England’s children’s champion has tried to calculate the total in a report, in the absence of overall official data.
She found some 670,000 children live in high risk family situations, thousands with parents in addiction treatment.
Children’s minister Robert Goodwill said support for vulnerable children was being given across government.
But he acknowledged there was more to do.
Ms Longfield highlighted that half a million children are so vulnerable that the state has to step in with support, and 46,000 are thought to be in gangs.
Some 200,000 are judged by the local council to have experienced trauma or abuse and 119,000 children are homeless or living in insecure or unstable accommodation.
Despite widespread concern, the most recent estimate of children suffering from mental health conditions – around 800,000 – is 13 years out of date. Read more
