Let's build better partnerships to support children

The pandemic which brought disruption, isolation and bereavement has had a huge and ongoing impact on the lives of young people and families. We see children who are struggling because of the delays to language and social skills which are so crucial in those first years of school. Every day, we are seeing longer and longer waits for services which children need today, not in a year’s time. At Chance UK, our youth workers are seeing a rise in social anxiety and poor mental health amongst many of the children we support - these are seven or eight year olds for whom the effects of enforced isolation are lasting far longer than the lockdown itself.

After the immediate crisis of the pandemic subsided there was a call to ‘build back better’, to see this as an opportunity to create a better society and to tackle some of the inequalities including those around race and deprivation which were exposed during this time.

Yet we are still seeing high levels of knife crime and violence affecting young people. All too often when you look behind the statistics you see a similar pattern of childhood trauma and difficulties at a young age that were simply never addressed. This has to change.

Tackling crime and antisocial behaviour is yet again a policy area of political significance – with both Labour and Conservatives shining a spotlight on this issue in the run up to a general election. Yet what will be critical in genuinely effecting change whoever is in power, is avoiding political posturing and ‘talking tough’ soundbites and instead really addressing the sometimes complex challenges facing young people.

We’ve had some successes over the past five years - there has been a far greater recognition of how trauma can impact the physical, psychological and emotional development of children and young people in very profound ways. However whilst there is some drive for trauma informed work at a local level through Violence Reduction Units or individual local authorities, as well becoming more prevalent in social work practice and some schools – this work hasn’t been championed nationally nor featured strongly enough in national policy. Until this changes, we will continue to fail to create services which are better able to meet the needs of children and young people - supporting them to overcome the effects of trauma and toxic stress in the longer term.

All too often, identifying how all services can work better towards longer term outcomes still seems to live in the ‘too difficult box’. Recent debates on reducing crime have steered away from important issues such as exclusions in schools. When you have a growing number of children being permanently excluded in primary schools, then there’s clearly something very wrong with the current system of support. We know that where there is a focus on a system wide approach, working with children from birth onwards, involving schools, hospitals, the voluntary sector and communities, as they’ve done in Glasgow – there can be huge dividends. It’s this very approach which is credited with halving the murder rate in Glasgow over a decade.

The investment and focus on ‘what works’ in the youth sector via the Youth Endowment Fund and the Early Intervention Foundation has certainly played a key role in generating greater understanding about how we make a difference. However, even with a greater focus on evidence based practice, delivering change on the ground, in a real life context with all the messiness this entails is an even greater challenge. Understanding what works is important but making it happen in different locations and contexts around the country will be hard.

Whether it’s ‘building back better’ or levelling up, we need a fundamental shift that sees support services working better together so that opportunities to help children are not missed. More investment in early support is vital if children are to get the help they need at the right time and not be passed from one service to the next. Listening to children and families has to be at the heart of what we do if we are to break the current cycle of exclusions and poor outcomes for too many young people.

Geethika Jayatilaka is chief executive of Chance UK – a charity providing early intervention support to children aged five -13 and their families to help them develop social and emotional skills.