While MPs debate delaying youth minimum wage increases to save government money, a far more expensive transformation has been happening in Britain's family courts. The numbers are staggering, and taxpayers are footing the bill.

In 2022, family courts issued just 12 special guardianship orders. By 2023, that figure had exploded to 1,091 orders. That's not a typo. It's a 9,000% increase in a single year.

Here's the timeline that shows how we got to this point. Special guardianship orders were introduced in 2005 as an alternative to adoption, allowing relatives or long-term carers to take legal responsibility for children without severing birth family ties. For nearly two decades, they remained a niche legal tool.

The shift began during COVID. Lockdowns strained families, social services stretched thin, and traditional adoption processes slowed. But the real turning point came in 2022 and 2023, when government policy pivoted hard towards keeping children with extended family wherever possible.

The explosion coincides with changes in family court practice directions and new guidance from the Department for Education encouraging local authorities to pursue special guardianship over care orders. What started as a gentle policy nudge became a avalanche.

Each special guardianship order triggers a complex legal process. Court hearings, social worker assessments, legal representation for multiple parties, ongoing support packages. Conservative estimates put the cost per case at £15,000 to £25,000 in legal and administrative fees alone.

Do the maths. If we're talking 1,091 new cases in 2023, that's potentially £16 million to £27 million in immediate costs. But special guardianship orders come with long-term financial commitments too: ongoing support payments, educational assistance, and therapeutic services that can run for years.

Local authorities are struggling. Many weren't budgeting for this scale of special guardianship when they set their 2023 spending plans. The money has to come from somewhere, and it's often other children's services that get squeezed.

The human cost matters too. These aren't just numbers in a ledger. Each order represents a child who needed intervention, a family under stress, a relative stepping up. But the financial reality is that this policy shift is reshaping how Britain spends money on vulnerable children.

While politicians argue over £1.40 extra per hour for young workers, this quiet revolution in family courts is moving millions. The question isn't whether these children needed help. It's whether anyone calculated what helping them would actually cost.

(Source: Ministry of Justice, Family Court Statistics -- Family_Court_Tables__Jul-Sep_2024_ -- Table_3)