Since its launch in June 2020, CYP Now’s #Chances4Children campaign has highlighted the efforts of services, projects, teams and individual practitioners going the extra mile to help children, young people and families get through the challenges of Covid-19 (see below). Now, as England comes to terms with the lifting of most restrictions and life returning to something approaching normal, attention has turned to what measures need to be put in place to recover the damage caused to children’s education, opportunities and wellbeing. Here, key organisations set out the immediate and long-term challenges and what policymakers need to do to tackle them.
EARLY YEARS
Financial sustainability
By National Day Nurseries Association
For providers to remain sustainable in the face of reduced parental income while operational costs have increased due to Covid-19 measures and higher minimum wages. Nurseries say they have fewer parent-paid children compared to pre-pandemic levels. If parents are relying more on just funded places settings will be less sustainable as the funding for places doesn’t cover delivery costs.
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Policy ask: An urgent review of early years funding is needed. The current system is unwieldy, confusing for parents and time-consuming for nurseries. This leads to money for early years not reaching the frontline as well as low take-up of support from parents. The hourly rate must increase to meet delivery costs and the system has to be simplified.
Staff recruitment and retention
By Early Years Alliance
A sustained lack of support from government – both financial and practical – throughout the pandemic, combined with rock-bottom wages after years of underfunding, is driving a recruitment and retention crisis in the sector. If this continues, it could have a direct impact on the quality and consistency of care and education for young children.
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Policy ask: The government must urgently invest in a stable early years workforce, able to continue delivering high-quality care and education. Together with a wholesale review of funding to enable the payment of fair wages, the development of an early years career framework is needed to incentivise progression, along with full recognition of practitioners as skilled education professionals.
EDUCATION
Education recovery
By National Foundation for Educational Research
Many children have now spent a significant amount of time studying from home when schools were partially closed. They might need additional support to help them cover the curriculum.
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Policy ask: To encourage the use of diagnostic testing with individual children to identify what parts of the curriculum they have missed and need additional support on. This can then be used to identify what aspects of a subject may need to be covered for all children in a class, and which children might need additional support on particular subjects.
Skills in core subjects
By Education Endowment Foundation
The common trend emerging from the research is that pupils’ progress in literacy and numeracy has been stunted as a likely result of partial school closures. Strong skills in these core subject areas are crucial for their wider development.
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Policy ask: Some pupils will require more help than others to get their back on track. These children must be able to access targeted support so that the gaps in their learning are filled. Ongoing initiatives such as the National Tutoring Programme and the Nuffield Early Language Intervention are available to assist schools with this.
HEALTH
Tackle health inequality
By Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
Covid-19 has compounded the inequalities entrenched in health. Deprived communities have borne the brunt of the wider negative impacts of the pandemic, and children in these communities have been hit hardest. Unemployment and a recession mean poverty is likely to increase, yet areas have seen the biggest proportional cuts to public health grant allocation from national government since 2015.
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Policy ask: Prioritise public health, prevention and early intervention by urgently increasing public health funding to local authorities commensurate to local population need, including restoring the £1bn of real-terms cuts to the public health grant since 2015.
Impact of trauma
By UK Trauma Council
The pandemic increased the risk that more children and young people will experience trauma, including through sudden bereavement and exposure to domestic violence. Ethnic minority communities have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic death toll, but may face additional challenges in accessing appropriate support.
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Policy ask: Invest in specialist and universal services to ensure frontline professionals have the skills and capacity to support children who have experienced trauma. Government investment in evidence-based trauma interventions would help ensure young people have access to support. All relevant workforces should be given training and guidance to respond confidently when a child presents with a traumatic response.
SOCIAL CARE
Rising child poverty
By British Association of Social Workers
The pandemic has hit poorest families the hardest. Those who were already struggling to make ends meet face economic uncertainty, digital poverty, and increased food insecurity, whilst millions of families have been plunged below the poverty line. With more families facing homelessness, financial strain and poorer mental health, referrals have increased at a time when social workers are already working beyond capacity with minimal resources.
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Policy ask: The government must address poverty at a policy level. For this to be effective, it will mean ensuring children’s basic needs are met by reversing plans to stop the uplift of universal credit in October. Free school meals must be safeguarded – in the fifth richest country in the world, no child should go hungry. Nor should governments only listen when forced to, as with Marcus Rashford’s campaign.
Complexity of needs
By Association of Directors of Children’s Services
We are seeing greater complexity in referrals to children’s social care, while early help and preventative services are experiencing an increase in demand. Local authorities are meeting this level of need now present in our communities but with significantly reduced budgets.
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Policy ask: We therefore must have a long-term plan for children with a funding strategy for children’s services and education settings along with a commitment to resource preventative or early help services sustainably.
YOUTH JUSTICE
Education disruption
By Association of YOT Managers
Children known to the criminal justice system are more likely to be on reduced timetables and have experienced exclusions from school. The impact of the pandemic has increased the risk of these children becoming more distanced from learning and education, with the potential for increased offending and risks of exploitation as a result.
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Policy ask: Education settings need to identify children involved in the criminal justice system who will require additional support to prevent reduced timetables and exclusion from learning.
Health of children in custody
By Nacro
Children in custody during the pandemic were hit incredibly hard: locked alone in their cells for long periods with a lack of family contact and disrupted education. This is likely to have a profound effect on their long-term psychological wellbeing.
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Policy ask: The experience of children in custody during the pandemic must be fully incorporated in recovery planning with targeted solutions. But we also must act to ensure that their experience is never repeated.
YOUTH WORK
Employment opportunities
By National Youth Agency
The barriers to work have been consistent over the years and are amplified by Covid-19. Many young people lack work experience, and are not seen to have the right skills. A churn of jobs and opportunities will be the pattern for most. We risk too many young people falling through the cracks between children’s and adult services, with a cliff-edge of support once they turn 18.
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Policy ask: Mobilisation of youth workers alongside schools, work coaches and employment services for (a) “up-stream” support before young people enter training or employment; (b) secure and trusted relationships over the long term, to remove barriers to work and sustain employment; (c) a youth work premium, to put young people on a surer footing, engaged in their communities throughout periods of underemployment.
Youth work funding
By UK Youth
The sector is financially fragile after years of cuts, and unable to meet the rising demands from young people during the pandemic. The lack of long term funding for youth organisations means they are unable to respond to increasing demands from young people in their communities, and many risk closure.
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Policy ask: In the immediate term, the government should release the £500m investment in youth work promised in their manifesto. This money is needed right now to respond to emergency needs of the sector. In the longer term, we call on them to work with the sector and young people to develop an ambitious, well-funded strategy for supporting young people.
About #Chances4Children
CYP Now’s #Chances4Children campaign aims to:
- Raise awareness of issues that prevent children and young people reaching their potential
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Champion practice and initiatives to tackle issues from which others can learn
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Support children’s sector leaders in their work to support vulnerable groups
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Provide a platform for children and young people to share their hopes and aspirations
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Ensure the needs of disadvantaged children remain at the forefront of policymakers’ post-pandemic recovery plans
How to get involved: For more on the campaign see www.cypnow.co.uk/chances-4-children
Share examples of your good practice on Twitter by tagging #Chances4Children
Send your stories to cypnow@markallengroup.com
