Funding for early intervention 'cut by half' over ten years – analysis

Local authority spending in England on crucial services that help stop children reaching crisis point was cut from £3.6 billion to £1.8bn between 2010 and 2020, according to an analysis of council budgets, with the poorest parts of the country being worst hit.

The impact of the pandemic is likely to have made it even harder for councils to offer early intervention services for families over the last 15 months, as councils across the country struggle to balance their budgets, the report says.

The analysis of council budgets between 2010 and 2020, commissioned by Action for Children, Barnardo’s, The Children’s Society, National Children’s Bureau and NSPCC - shows that local authorities are ‘trapped in a vicious circle’.

In some of the poorest areas in the country councils have cut spending on early intervention by more than 80 per cent.

It also reveals that overall spending on children’s services in the most deprived areas has fallen by 14 per cent per child.

The most deprived local authorities in the UK reduced early intervention spending by an average of 59 per cent between 2010 and 2020, while in the least deprived local authorities the fall was limited to 38 per cent.

The group of charities estimates that Government funding available to councils for children’s services fell by 24 per cent from £9.9 billion to £7.5 billion in real terms between 2010/11 and 2019/20.

The research, conducted by Pro Bono Economics, shows overall spending on all children’s services between 2010 and 2020 fell by £325m, despite there being a 4 per cent rise in the number of young people across the country (with a similar rise in the number of vulnerable children).

Faced with a lack of funding, councils are being forced to reduce spending on early support services, which leads to a greater reliance on crisis interventions and care placements, which are both more expensive and more disruptive to children’s lives, the charities claim.

This is demonstrated by analysis of late intervention spending, which reveals it surged between 2010 and 2020, from £5.7bn to £7.6bn, a 34 per cent increase. 

The report attributes this partly to the rising expenditure of supporting children in care, with average annual costs increasing from £53,000 to £64,000.

The report cites figures from the Sutton Trust, which estimated that since 2010, 1,000 children’s centres and 750 youth centres have been forced to close.

Victoria Brooks, a mum of four children (right), used to receive early help through her local children’s centre for her two sons who have physical and learning disabilities.

But in 2015 her council was forced to close her local children’s centre to meet central Government savings targets.

‘The support I used to get at the Action for Children-run centre in my village was an absolute lifeline,' she said. 'The team were there to help me with anything I needed when I was pregnant with the boys and bringing them up – including helping me liaise with doctors to get the right diagnoses, securing appointments, signposting me to advice, and, critically, for giving me the confidence and emotional support I needed. I was even able to check in with the workers over the phone in the evenings and weekends if it was an emergency. 

From left to right: Dan Orritt, Alex Orritt, Victoria Brooks and Eddie Brooks

‘If I hadn’t had their help, I’m sure I would’ve ended up with severe depression, or something worse – I can’t really picture what those early years would have been like for us a family without them. When you have children with serious additional needs, you want to blame yourself. You know deep down it’s not your fault but having professionals nearby you trust to support you meant everything. When my children’s centre closed, that all disappeared.’

With more families needing support during the pandemic, the group of leading children’s charities are deeply concerned that local authorities will not be able to cope. 

The charities believe it is essential the Government uses the Spending Review, expected this autumn, to invest directly in services for children and families. That new investment should be focused on achieving a genuine shift from crisis support to earlier intervention, they say.

As well as significantly increased spending, they want the recommendations from recent and ongoing reviews of children’s services, such as the Best Start for Life Review and the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, to be implemented.  

Imran Hussain, director of policy and campaigns at Action for Children, said, ‘It’s a moral disgrace and an economic waste that children are left to come to harm before they’re given the help they need.

‘An approach centred on firefighting crises is not a strategy that protects children. We will only be able to genuinely start preventing children coming to harm when we overhaul funding of early intervention services and can act quickly.’