Chaotic families with multiple needs cost the public purse huge sums of money. So the incentive for councils to prevent family breakdown is higher than ever.
But while hard evidence to prove the benefits of preventative work has until now been thin on the ground, findings from intensive family support projects and collaborative initiatives such as Total Place are beginning to make the empirical case for early intervention.
Dave Hill, is now director of children's services in Essex, but held the post in Croydon until recently. He was instrumental in Croydon's Total Place pilot, which focused on improving early years services.
"The idea was that we mapped all of the money that we spent on children," he explains. "Not just social care and the NHS, but the benefits agencies, Jobcentre Plus, leisure, police and anybody else."
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