Vulnerable families 'missing out on early help'

Action for Children says thousands of families are stuck in a "revolving door" of assessment and re-referral as local authorities have been forced to shrink or abandon family support services as budgets struggle to keep pace with rising demand.

Its report, based on findings from a Freedom of Information request sent to 152 local authorities, concludes opportunities are being missed to intervene early and tackle the root causes of abuse and neglect.

The research revealed 184,500 children's needs assessments carried out in 2015/16 were closed as "no further action" as they did not meet the threshold for statutory services.

Of these, around one in four families received early help services, such as support from children's centres or domestic violence programmes, leaving an estimated 140,000 children without support.

The most common concerns were domestic violence, neglect, physical abuse, parental mental health and substance misuse but a small number of local authority staff also reported child sexual abuse or exploitation.

The findings show large regional variations in the number of children referred to early help services after their cases were closed to social care.
In Yorkshire and Humber, on average 17 per cent of families assessed received further help compared with the North West where the average was 40 per cent.

Sir Tony Hawkhead, chief executive of Action for Children, said: "Our report turns a spotlight on the thousands of families up and down the country who are not getting help, despite concerns having been raised about the welfare of a child.

"Punishing savings targets have given local authorities no option but to drastically shrink or abandon services, including family support, leaving large numbers of children on the fringes of social care without the help they need."

The charity is calling on the government to strengthen the legal responsibilities for providing early help services - whether through a review of Section 17 of the Children Act 1989 or the introduction of new measures - and provide adequate funding to local authorities so they can offer help as soon as children need it.

"If the government is serious about looking after the most vulnerable children in society, it must urgently re-invest in local services that are proven to tackle the root causes of neglect and abuse - not just hope it can firefight the symptoms," Hawkhead added.

Councillor Richard Watts, chair of the Local Government Association's children and young people board, said: "As a result of funding cuts and huge increases in demand for services, the reality is that services for the care and protection of vulnerable children are now, in many areas, being pushed to breaking point."

Watts said the number of children placed on a child protection plan as a result of referrals had risen by more than 90 per cent.

"This demonstrates the increasing level of need that councils are seeing, and the significant efforts they are taking to ensure that children are robustly protected," he added.

"Councils are doing everything they can to respond to the significant underfunding in children's social care, including protecting budgets, reducing costs where they can and finding new ways of working.

"However, they are at the point where there are very few savings left to find without having a real and lasting impact upon crucial services that many children and families across the country desperately rely on," he said.