Socioeconomic and Geographic Variation

Children and young people from the most deprived neighbourhoods consistently had the highest number of admissions. The admission gap between the most and least deprived areas narrowed from 80% in 2012/2013 to 5% in 2021/2022 because admissions rose faster in less deprived areas. Most Integrated Care Boards had costs below £750,000 in 2012/2013, while most exceeded £1 million by 2021/2022. Regional cost differences were descriptive rather than causal because the study did not measure service capacity or crisis infrastructure directly.