In September 2014 Barnardo’s joined with the four other largest children’s charities in the UK – Action for Children, The Children’s Society, NSPCC, and Save the Children UK – to maximise our collective voice on a single issue. It was agreed by the five organisations that in the present political context addressing this one matter could underpin a new means of both better meeting the needs of our service users, whilst, remarkably, at the same time saving the state money. There is a way we might reimagine how to tackle our social problems.
It was, and is, the view of the charities that the common sense case for investing in ‘early intervention’ is now almost beyond challenge. It is certainly clear that Government continues to spend enormous sums of money meeting the cost of expensive social concerns such as those related to unemployment and the skills to work; physical or mental health issues; criminal justice cases; or rehabilitation programmes for substance misuse. Amidst increasing amounts of evidence on how much resource can be saved by supporting children and families earlier, before the costly effects of these inter-linked conditions become acute, this report makes the case for early support.
