This year, I also noticed a pattern: many of the programmes would have once been part of the normal range of services provided in a local area. Now they are exceptional not just because of their quality, but because they have survived. They have flourished despite, for example, a fall in spending on youth services from £48 per pupil in 2015 to £32 today, or a drop in council spending on early help services by 40 per cent between 2010/11 and 2015/16.
While local authorities struggle to meet demand, often valiantly maintaining excellent services and somehow protecting them from the worst of the cuts, it is left to voluntary organisations to pick up the pieces.
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