Children: Social Services

(asked on 15th May 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the long-term benefit to the economy of early intervention and prevention work provided by local authority children’s services departments.


Answered by
Nadhim Zahawi Portrait
Nadhim Zahawi
This question was answered on 22nd May 2019

The government has funded the Early Intervention Foundation (EIF) since 2013, including almost £2 million in 2018-20, to assess, evaluate and disseminate evidence of what works. The EIF has assessed the benefits of a wide range of specific early intervention programmes and suggested that whilst producing robust estimates is challenging, there is a compelling argument that the costs of intervening early are likely to pay off to society in economic terms. In particular, they highlight that the long-term economic benefits are considerable where early intervention leads to labour market gains, such as improvements in employment and earnings. However, they are clear that it is not a quick fix and is unlikely to reduce pressure on the social care system in the short term.

The value of early intervention is reflected in statutory guidance ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’ (2018), which is clear that providing early help is more effective in promoting children’s welfare than reacting later – playing an important part in supporting children and young people to achieve better outcomes. The guidance is clear that local areas should have a comprehensive range of effective, evidence-based services in place to address assessed needs early. It is right that local authorities are free to decide how to use their children’s social care budget to manage local priorities and deliver the best services for children.

The government has also committed £920 million to the Troubled Families Programme, an early intervention approach which aims to achieve significant and sustained improvement for families with multiple, high-cost problems.

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