OCC report on vulnerable babies in England

Commenting on a report by the OCC into vulnerable babies in England Charlotte Ramsden, Chair of the ADCS Health, Care and Additional Needs Policy Committee, said:

“For local authorities protecting children and young people from harm is most important work and we work with a range of partners to do this including schools, health, the police and the voluntary sector. We know that children are best brought up within their families, this is a core principle of the Children Act 1989; local authorities are working hard to support families in times of crisis to better manage the challenges they face but the government’s current approach to funding is not conducive to this goal. Children’s services are facing increasing pressures as the report states; austerity continues and the cuts local authorities are having to make are becoming increasingly tough and counterintuitive as we are forced to scale back services that help tackle the root causes of the problems families face not just the symptoms. We urge the government to seriously rethink its current approach to funding children’s services, ad-hoc, time limited grant funding that only benefits a handful of local areas does not offer a sustainable, equitable solution. We hope the government is not silent on the issue in the forthcoming Autumn Budget.”

ENDS

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