Foreword
Last year a report commissioned by a coalition of children’s charities showed that council spending on early intervention declined by 42% since 2010/11 i . Yet the County Councils Network (CCN) and Society of County Treasurers (SCT) have previously demonstrated, across many reports over the past few years, how the number of children in the care system has risen to record levels in the 2020s ii , how spending on Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) has tripled in just a decade, whilst outcomes have at best flatlined iii . They have also shown how councils have needed to increase their proportional spending on statutory services to cope, thus further squeezing funding available to deliver and commission more preventative services iv . The pandemic created additional complexity to addressing these trends, but this should not be allowed to distract from the underlying ethical and fiscal priority – meeting needs early. Insufficient preventative services to place around a family at an early stage and the difficulty of identifying children and families most at risk due to fragmented data across partner agencies are often cited by those working in children’s services as key challenges to overcome to achieve this aim. This report is therefore timely in attempting to help unpick how the support provided by children’s social care and their partners might be better tilted towards an ecosystem geared
around prevention. It focuses specifically on how the present high number of children in the care system might be reduced over the coming years with a more effective use of preventative services. Beyond ‘what ifs’, the analysis suggests evidence-based ways in which councils can use this learning to change lives and outcomes for children. This report describes five fundamental ‘shifts’ that the analysis suggests can help in redesigning systems within child protection and family support at a local level. These will require collaborative working between councils and other agencies such as schools and adult support services. It will also require better co-ordination at central government level, and a commitment to investing in ‘pump-prime’ development. But collectively, success would mean reduced pressure on services, and more importantly would help to prevent many more children from needing to come into care. It is hoped that the following research helps to further underpin an evidence base for how local and national leaders can effect strategic reform in conjunction with national government, at a time where the benefits of prevention are needed more than ever. Councillor David Hitchiner Herefordshire Council CCN Vice Chair (Independent)
Whilst this aim can be universally agreed upon, the practical reality of reforming the system to achieve it has proved immensely challenging. This is due to a number of factors: • The complexity of governance in the UK which can lead to siloed working and fierce protection of budgets rather than pooling; • Local authorities’ duty to provide statutory services which can mean that non-statutory preventive services are reduced when resources are constrained; • The complexities of scaling up existing local good practice, for example how differing attitudes to risk can affect if and how scaling up happens; • The need to potentially ‘double fund’ some services for at least a period while the effects of a particular intervention have time to be demonstrated; • The difficulty of using standard outcome measures and performance data to incentivise and account for investment in prevention and early intervention – particularly where agencies expected to invest time or resources (e.g. schools or health services) may not be the same agencies that will see the financial benefit. This report is timely in attempting to help unpick how the support provided by children’s social care and their partners might be better tilted towards an ecosystem geared around prevention.”
Councillor David Hitchiner
It is a common goal that has underpinned many of the policy debates of the past three decades around social care, education, and beyond: the need to deliver high quality, cost-effective, prevention interventions that will help people before they reach the point of crisis, and that will end up paying for themselves in the longer term. This ambition has been consistently supported by governments of all hue: from the creation of Sure Start in the late 1990s to the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care in 2022 and its subsequent implementation, this aim has always shaped policy around children’s services and education. This is not because care is a bad thing in principle – often it can transform a child’s life chances. However, research over many decades has consistently shown the importance of family bonds being preferable, wherever possible, in delivering positive outcomes in the future. The more that children can be supported to stay within – or indeed to return to – their homes, the more stability and roots they should have as they develop and grow.
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