No more lost childhoods: reimagining children's services

We are developing radical new approaches to delivering children’s services, forming long-term strategic partnerships with councils, the police, NHS, and other charities, to and respond to the increasingly complex needs of children and their families. We have been doing this in Norfolk, Newport and Redbridge and early evaluations are encouraging.

In our No more lost childhoods report, we explore how vulnerability is changing and how through our investment in long-term strategic partnerships, we are reaching out to more children and stepping in early so they don’t lose their childhoods. 

Pressure on external services

We know that the number of children needing support from local authority children’s services has grown significantly. Having risen steadily for nine years, there are now over 70,000 children going into the care system. The demand for children’s services and growing complexity of need are outstripping the resources available to local authorities.

As a result, many councils have had to concentrate their limited resources on help for children with the highest level of need. And too often this is at the expense of preventative services – such as children’s centres, family hubs and youth work – creating a vicious cycle where too many children reach crisis point before they can access support.​​​​

In Thomas Barnardo's time, the problems facing Victorian children were severe. They were clear for all to see: children without parents, in poor health and out of school, sleeping on rooftops and in alleyways.

It’s not like that today. There have been some huge improvements – especially in health and education. But the problems that do exist are very real and extremely complex.

Around 1 in 20 children experience some form of sexual abuse and with three children in every classroom thought to have a diagnosable mental health problem, things are reaching epidemic proportions. We know that increasing numbers of children are ending up in the care system and young people are falling prey to violent crime and drug trafficking.

But the nature of ‘vulnerability’ is changing, and it doesn’t respect class or privilege. Emerging evidence from our frontline services suggests some young people are facing multiple and overlapping dangers from early trauma and neglect, to grooming and sexual abuse, through to criminal exploitation, drugs and gangs.