It all starts in the community

摘要

Since the birth of my daughter last year, 1 have benefited enormously from my local children's centre: from its breastfeeding support group to its jaundice clinic. It is hard to imagine now how 1 would have coped without it. Yet, with Sure Start children's centres closing and other more preventative services being withdrawn from the community, families are increasingly isolated, unable to get help early before problems escalate. At the same time, children's services teams have been operating on high alert following several high-profile cases, resulting in a risk-averse culture, often at the expense of improving outcomes for the children and families. Instead of reducing demand, this approach has led to more and more children in the care of the local authority. As of March 2018, there were 75,420 looked after children in England - an increase of 4% from the year before. Meanwhile, councils are having to meet this rising demand with diminishing funding and resources. The funding gap for children's services is expected to rise to £3.1bn by 2025.