Funding of children’s services requires cross party consensus
Action for Children has published the second addition of The Red Book, our annual report on the real impact of the recession and spending decisions on over 46,000 children that we support, in communities across the UK, writes Graham Bambrough, public affairs officer at Action for Children.
Using detailed research and from our experience as a service provider, the report shows that two out of three of the most vulnerable families are struggling with more severe issues than this time last year. Issues include neglect, deprivation and mental health problems. With just 12 per cent of the planned public spending cuts having taken place by April 2012, (According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Green Budget 2012), including dramatic welfare reforms that are still to be implemented, we fear that the situation is only going to get worse.
The report states that the ability of services to make a lasting difference to children’s lives is being further compromised by short-term funding, with 64% per cent of projects operating on one or two year contracts. Effective services depend upon building strong and stable personal connections. Uncertainty in funding creates uncertainty in staffing and contracts, and ultimately in local front line relationships. While these things sound technical, they can have stark human impacts; the troubled young person who has just learned to trust his key worker only to find out he has a new person to work with; the mother who has begun to develop her parenting skills and started to volunteer but finds her child care cut. Or the family who has established a relationship with one centre, only to be told they have to attend a new one further from home due to funding changes.
Current funding structures are forcing frontline services to focus on short-term, quick-fix solutions that are doing nothing to prevent problems from escalating or curbing them in the longer term. This is despite the broad political consensus on the need to shift children’s services towards delivering early intervention.
We believe that the Coalition Government should introduce a statutory duty upon local authorities to provide sufficient early intervention services in their local area, and that the government and opposition should together commit to alternative and long-term funding arrangements that can bring about a transformation in children’s services.
You can read a full copy of the report at http://www.actionforchildren.org.uk/
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