Charity raises fears over cuts to early help funding

The charity's annual Red Book report on the state of children's services, concludes that local authorities are prioritising crisis intervention over early helps services, and that the funding gap between the two is growing due to cuts to local budgets.

The Eleventh Hour: Are Children and Families Being Helped Too Late? says the shift away from spending on early intervention is set to get worse because councils are having to prioritise shrinking funding on those services they are legally obliged to deliver.

"With further cuts in spending certain after 2015, the situation is fast approaching a tipping point," it concludes.

Drawn from the responses of 109 Action for Children service managers across the UK, the report highlights particular concerns around the lack of access to mental health services for children and young people first experiencing symptoms, little help for families managing debt and money problems, and a rise in child neglect referrals.

The charity says early intervention spending is set to fall two per cent in 2014/15, with children's centres taking the brunt of the cuts. In September, Section 251 returns from local authorities showed £400m had been cut from children's centre budgets since 2010.