{"id":126732,"date":"2024-09-03T08:28:41","date_gmt":"2024-09-03T08:28:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/03\/families-not-getting-enough-help-before-crisis-point-charities-warn\/"},"modified":"2024-09-03T08:28:41","modified_gmt":"2024-09-03T08:28:41","slug":"families-not-getting-enough-help-before-crisis-point-charities-warn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/03\/families-not-getting-enough-help-before-crisis-point-charities-warn\/","title":{"rendered":"Families not getting enough help before crisis point, charities warn"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The number of children in residential care in England has more than doubled over the past 12 years, with charities saying families are not getting help before they reach crisis point.<\/p>\n

A coalition of five children\u2019s charities say the increase is in part a consequence of wider issues, such as rising levels of child poverty.<\/p>\n

And part of the problem is spending cuts to local services designed to help children before problems escalate, says the report, seen by the BBC.<\/p>\n

The government said it was \u201cdevastating\u201d that children were \u201cbeing let down\u201d and its Children\u2019s Wellbeing Bill would \u201cmake sure every child” had a “safe, loving home\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The report has been put together by five charities – Action for Children, Barnardo\u2019s, The Children\u2019s Society, National Children\u2019s Bureau and the NSPCC.<\/p>\n

Together they are calling for the government to invest more in \u201cearly intervention services\u201d for children and young people. <\/p>\n

Early intervention services \u2013 like children\u2019s centres or family hubs \u2013 are provided by local councils and aimed at parents and children who may be facing problems, or to support children in the community.<\/p>\n

The report found that since 2010\/11 the amount councils in England spent on early intervention services almost halved \u2013 from \u00a34bn to \u00a32.2bn in 2022\/23.<\/p>\n

The charities say this is \u201clikely\u201d to have played a part in the increase in the number of children in care, as services to help people with low-level needs \u201chave become increasingly hard to find\u201d.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile in the same time period, the amount spent on \u201clate intervention\u201d services for children and young people \u2013 such as residential care, youth justice and child protection \u2013 has hit a record level, increasing from \u00a36.3bn to \u00a39.9bn.<\/p>\n

The amount spent on placements in children\u2019s homes specifically almost doubled to \u00a32.4bn.<\/p>\n

But the report says this increase in expenditure \u201cis not leading to improved outcomes for the children and families the system support\u201d.<\/p>\n

And the number of children in residential care rose from 8,000 in 2011 to 16,000 in 2023.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018Vicious cycle\u2019<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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The report also quoted the Competition and Markets Authority as saying the way that children\u2019s social care was currently being funded was \u201cdysfunctional\u201d, with \u201cunexpectedly high profits\u201d being made and lack of suitable placements.<\/p>\n

Lynn Perry, CEO of Barnardo\u2019s, described it as a “vicious cycle\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are stuck in a vicious cycle, with less and less support for children and families, just as rising poverty and poor mental health mean they are needed more than ever before.<\/p>\n

The only answer must be additional investment in services that help to prevent these crises in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cllr Arooj Shah, chair of the Local Government Association\u2019s Children and Young People Board, said councils \u201cstand ready\u201d to address the challenges, but need \u201clong-term, adequate funding\u201d to do so.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In December 2022, an independent review of children\u2019s social care highlighted a system that was \u201cincreasingly skewed to crisis intervention.\u201d<\/p>\n

The review author, Josh Macalister, is now a Labour MP. He described Monday’s report as \u201cthe latest in a long line of reports that all show the same trend\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the plan, evidence and workforce to reform the care system,” he said. “The last government made modest changes but we need the full scale reform programme that children and families deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n

The charities say the government’s Children’s Wellbeing Bill does not amount to the scale of reform that is required, describing this as a \u201cserious concern\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe new government has not committed to the widescale reform of the sector that is required, nor has it pledged any increase in funding for family help services, despite this being a central recommendation of the independent review of children\u2019s social care in England. For many, the lack of such a commitment is a serious concern.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to the report, the minister for children and families, Janet Daby, said: \u201cIt is devastating that young people are being let down by a system that should be keeping them safe.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that all too often care placements for vulnerable children come at a massive financial cost to councils and a human cost to young people who aren\u2019t getting the support they need.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Daby said the government was “committed to cracking down on providers making excessive profits” and the Children’s Wellbeing Bill would “strengthen regulation”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Getty Images The number of children in residential care in England has more than doubled over the past 12 years, with charities saying families are not getting help before they reach crisis point. A coalition of five children\u2019s charities say the increase is in part a consequence of wider issues, such as rising levels of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/bbcx\/grey-placeholder.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[603],"tags":[31221,734,11227,6778,123],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126732"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126732"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":126734,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126732\/revisions\/126734"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}