
After a decade of early help slipping down the priority list in children’s services policy and practice, publication of the Care Review final report signalled a potential turning point.
The key finding of the review is that the care system is “increasingly skewed to crisis intervention” and many of its recommendations aim to rebalance this by shifting the focus towards providing more early help for families.
Children’s services leaders warn that the need for action is urgent. Over the past decade, the amount spent by councils on late interventions has risen by more than a quarter, while spending on early help services has halved. In 2020/21, 80 per cent of children’s services spending was on children and young people whose problems are so severe they need statutory intervention. The outlook is for this imbalance to deteriorate without action.
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