Some children are spending “several weeks” at Addenbrooke’s Hospital for safety reasons due to a lack of social care placements. 

The Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said it is seeing more children being brought to the emergency department as a place of safety as there was not anywhere else for them to stay. 

Lorraine Szeremeta, chief nurse at the trust, told the board of directors meeting this week (September 13) that some children may only spend a few hours at the hospital waiting for a foster carer or carer, but others could spend days waiting and in some cases several weeks. 

She said it was a “hugely complex situation” and said meetings were taking place with the Integrated Care Board (ICB) to find a “joined-up approach” across organisations for the safety of the children. 

Ms Szeremeta said: “We are not at a point of resolution yet, a lot of work still needs to be done.” 

A report presented to the meeting said the hospital had accommodated children as a place of safety for 56 “bed days” in Q1 2023. 

The report also said there had been an increase in referrals to the children’s safeguarding team over the last quarter, with 224 referrals – compared with 194 for the previous three months – with the top reasons for referrals being mental health and neglect. 

Roland Sinker, the trust chief executive, said a system-wide meeting had been called by the medical director at the ICB to look at the issue and “to agree a system-wide response to identification of pathways for these children”.