Anne Longfield, the children’s commissioner for England, recently stated that “the biggest social challenge of our time” is finding ways to support the estimated 2.1 million children in England who are in vulnerable family situations. Of these, nearly 500,000 are outside of the established child support services and only come to attention when matters have reached crisis point and care becomes the only option.
Vulnerable family situations can include a wide variety of problems, but the most common are parental addiction, mental illness and domestic violence. Government estimates suggest 825,000 children under the age of 18 live with an adult who has experienced domestic violence in the past year, whilst, 470,000 live with an adult who is dependent on drink or drugs and 890,000 live with a parent who has severe mental health problems.
At CF we see first hand the damage that living in these situations can inflict on children, often seriously affecting their performance at school, relationships and damaging their prospects in later life.
Anne Longfield believes it doesn’t have to be that way. She wants greater investment in early intervention services, from psychological counselling to youth clubs, that could reduce the chances of a child’s future being irrevocably blighted.
“The social, educational and economic costs of failing to help these children are clear,” she said. “However, beyond all of this is a moral argument about whether we are prepared to deny children who need our support … I believe that supporting vulnerable children is the biggest social justice challenge of our time.
“I don’t pretend that meeting this challenge will be easy or that it can be done for free. It will require additional resources. But more than that, it requires a paradigm shift in our approach to children so that we move from a system which marginalises vulnerable children to one which embraces them. For a good proportion of these children, the support of families and and a good experience in school will be enough to ensure they have a happy and fulfilled childhood, despite adversity.”
For this to become reality it will require a reversal in the cuts that have been made by Local Authorities to early intervention services in the last decade and, at a time when funding is scarce and the demands in all areas of social care are increasing, it is difficult to see extra cash being made available. However, when you consider that a place in care costs £60,000 a year, and the amount of time and resources devoted by other agencies, including the Police and Criminal Justice system, to picking up the pieces from the current failed system is substantial, perhaps money spent on prevention would be money well spent.