Early help funding for youngest children funnelled to crisis support

Today 1 min read Joe Lepper Social Care Early Years

Early help spending on children aged four and under has halved since 2010 - with money instead being diverted to urgent and crisis support, such as taking children into care, research has found.

Children looked-after by their local authority makes up the single largest item of spending in this area, according to charity Nesta. Picture: Morguefile

While public spending across health, social care and education on this age group has remained steady at around £6,400 a child over the last decade, the proportion directed at early help services has been slashed.

The research, published by social innovation charity Nesta, found that £3 in every £10 of funding for young children was spent on preventative services in 2022/23, compared with £6 in every £10 in 2010/11.

Spending on Sure Start children’s centres had fallen by three quarters over this period, which accounts for a quarter of the cuts in overall children’s services funding.

Meanwhile “funding has instead increasingly focused on services that respond to children with more urgent needs, with children looked-after by their local authority now the single largest item of spending in this area”, found Nesta.

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