Vulnerable children deliberately self-harming to stay in care, research finds

Report shines light on ‘catastrophic situation’ where young people make themselves more ill to avoid losing support Some of the most vulnerable children and young people in care are deliberately self-harming to avoid being abandoned when they get better or turn 18 and face a “cliff edge” of no further support, according to research. Abi Booth, a psychotherapist who works with children and young people, said some were in a “catastrophic situation” in which they were hurting themselves to keep their place in therapeutic facilities. Booth said this group of young people believed the only way they could stay safe was not to “get better” from their mental health conditions and to become more ill by severely self-harming or attempting suicide. A government review into the deaths of 112 care leavers in England aged 18-24 in 2025 identified a dramatic drop in support at the age of 18. The Guardian revealed in April that there had been an almost fivefold increase in children in unregulated social care settings in England. Booth said: “Society’s system around the most vulnerable people in the UK is failing them at every level … Of the hundreds of young people I have spoken to in the course o