Government spending on early support for children set to be slashed

New analysis by the charities Action for Children, National Children’s Bureau and The Children’s Society says funding for services including children’s centres, family support and teenage pregnancy in the region, is expected to drop from just over £350m in 2010 to just under £97m in 2020.

It spoke to 37 local authority councillors across Yorkshire and said many are now questioning whether they will be able to keep many of these services open, with 67 per cent worried that slashed budgets will result in reduced services.

This is despite a vast majority, 98 per cent, saying that early intervention is a high priority for their local community.

Although councils will gradually gain some new powers to raise revenue to pay for services through taxes collected from local businesses, 61 per cent believe that it will be impossible to maintain current levels of spending on early support.

Across Yorkshire, the charities predict crisis-hit Rotherham will be hardest hit, losing 74 per cent of funding from 2010/11 to 2019/2020 - receiving just £4.9m in three years time compared with £18.9m at the turn of the decade.

Barnsley, Bradford, Calderdale, Doncaster, Hull, Sheffield and Wakefield are all expected to see a 73 per cent cut to funding.

Bradford Council’s portfolio holder for health and social care, Coun Ralph Berry, B said: “Bradford, like other local authorities, is facing extraordinary challenges as a result of these huge government cuts, not least because our district has one of the youngest populations in the country. Our priority had been to protect frontline services for the most vulnerable, but it is a real concern that these reductions are making it harder to provide the early support families need.”

Wakefield Council cabinet member for children and young people, Coun Olivia Rowley said “significant reductions” to its budget had made supporting children and families “very difficult indeed”.

Coun Richard Watts, from the Local Government Association said councils had strived to keep funding reductions “as low as possible” despite a 55 per cent cut in early intervention funding from central government since 2010/11.

But said “urgent reform” on how funding is allocated is needed to encourage savings.

Action for Children’s director of children’s services across Yorkshire, John Egan, said: “Central governments have hacked away at the budget for early help which has had a devastating effect on local authority spend to support families across Yorkshire. We are set to see further reductions, which is simply short-sighted. Intervening when a crisis occurs instead of working at an early stage to prevent it from happening, has a devastating cost both in social and financial terms.

“We are calling on Government to prioritise the services children need to help build a better future.”

The Children’s Society said cuts could “cost us all dearly” in the long run.

External affairs director Peter Grigg said: “This and previous governments have claimed to be committed to the concept of early intervention, yet our analysis makes clear that this rhetoric is not matched by investment in the very services that can prevent future spending on picking up the pieces. In presiding over a cut this huge the Government is risking the future of early intervention as we know it. This will have real long-term consequences for children’s health, education and futures – in Yorkshire and across the UK. Early intervention and help for children of all ages improves their lives, stops damage, and prevents more costly remedial solutions as they get older.”

A Government spokesperson said: “All children, whatever their background, deserve the best possible start in life – that’s why we are increasing funding for early years and childcare to over £6 billion by the end of the Parliament, backed up with £100 million to improve the way councils deliver services for families. Councils are ultimately responsible for deciding what services are needed in their area and we are giving them almost £200 billion to spend on local services by 2020 to support this.”

Yorkshire among hardest hit regions

EARLY Years provisions includes children’s centres, intensive interventions when children are at risk of going into care, and short breaks for disabled children, among others.

The predictions are based last year’s Comprehensive Spending Review, which mapped out how much early intervention funding would be provided t up to 2019-20 - a cut of £520m nationally over the next four years.

The charities predict Yorkshire councils will be among the hardest hit, seeing an average cut of 72 per cent from 2010, compared to 69 per cent in the East of England, and 73 per cent in the north east and north west.