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A new report titled The Red Book 2012 – an investigation into the real impact of the recession and spending decisions on over 46,000 children supported by the charity in 150 communities across the UK – reveals that two out of three of the most vulnerable families are struggling with more severe issues than a year ago.
With just 12 per cent of the planned public spending cuts having taken place by April 2012, and with dramatic welfare reforms still to be implemented, the charity is warning that the situation is only going to get worse.
With 51 per cent of surveyed staff reporting increasing demand, already-stretched services are being forced to focus on crisis intervention rather than more cost-effective preventative measures. Services’ capacities to make a lasting difference to children and families’ lives are being further compromised by short-term funding, with 91 per cent operating on contracts that will not outlast the current Spending Review (May 2015).
We need local services that have the flexibility to deliver the early intervention that’s so urgently needed in communities right now. Simple changes to the way the current system is funded are...
Action for Children is calling for urgent support for early intervention and long-term decision making to prevent rising need when there will increasingly be less resource to tackle it.
Action for Children's Chief Executive, Dame Clare Tickell, said: “The Red Book 2012 highlights problems that, while new to individual children and families, have persisted for decades. We are sitting on a ticking time bomb that has the potential for both human and financial repercussions.
“We welcome the coalition government’s commitment to early intervention but the current system of short-term, quick-fix funding is simply exacerbating existing need and instability, creating a false economy that could cost society more than £1.3 billion a year.
“As changes to welfare, unemployment and the recession look set to continue, we desperately need a shift from short-term thinking to long-term strategies that put children first and short-term politics second,” she said.
As part of this, the charity has created a ‘This is Your Life’ book which details the real life stories of some of the children and families using its services. Action for Children tasked six young people from Greater Manchester, who are supported by the charity, with creating an animation to bring these stories to life. The results were turned into this film (below).
One of the young people who helped create the animations said: “I’ve really enjoyed this project, especially being able to put my ideas down on paper and watching them come to life. Also I liked the fact that my ideas were taken into consideration and people listened to what I said. Now I’m looking forward to seeing my ideas being put into an animation.”
Gemma, 14, has been a young carer for as long as she can remember, helping her mum care for her younger disabled brother. She has been supported by Action for Children’s Young Carers’ service since primary school and is one of twelve people who the charity is following as part of its Red Book research throughout the four-year Spending Review Period.
Gemma said: “Switching from being at home to being at school is very difficult. I like going to school, but it takes – sometimes – an hour or two to get the fact into my head that I’m not at home anymore and that I don’t, sort of, have to have it in my head. But I’m always worrying anyway.
“I first started going away [with Action for Children Young Carers] on weekends, to a house with people my age. Young Carers is good because it took my mind of what's happening at home - it's where I feel the age I am. If they hadn't been there then it would just have been getting harder and harder,” she added.
Gemma is no longer able to access the weekly young carers’ support sessions she used to attend. The Young Carers’ service is struggling to meet intensifying demand and, while trying to deliver the same level of support to all of the children and young people it works with, it is being forced to prioritise those with the greatest need. The staff are currently working hard to include Gemma in additional activities, especially in the holidays.
The situation is part of a pattern across frontline services, with one in five (21 per cent) of Action for Children managers reporting that they have had to amend the criteria for which children, young people and families are eligible to access vital support.
Dame Clare continued: “We need local services that have the flexibility to deliver the early intervention that’s so urgently needed in communities right now. Simple changes to the way the current system is funded are critical if we’re to have any hope of protecting future generations of children.”
To prevent escalating problems for vulnerable children and their families, and the resultant rise in child protection and care costs, Action for Children is calling for the three major parties to work together to introduce; a statutory duty upon local authorities to provide sufficient early intervention services in their local area and to commit to alternative and long-term funding arrangements for local children's services, providing the security needed to achieve better outcomes and a shift to early intervention.
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