Children’s services leaders in England call for national ‘plan for childhood’

There is rising concern about declining school attendance and youngsters being ‘left behind’ post-Covid. Photograph: davidf/Getty Images

Children’s services leaders have called for a national “plan for childhood” to transform the health, emotional wellbeing and life chances of a generation of youngsters scarred by austerity and the pandemic.

In a withering assessment of the government’s record over the past few years, they said ministers had presided over deepening child poverty, crumbling schools and an exploding health and wellbeing crisis in young people, with low-income families worst affected.

The government’s failure to prioritise the post-pandemic needs of children in England was a “massive missed opportunity” that would leave many thousands of youngsters “left behind”, the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) said.

Its warning comes amid rising public concern about children across a range of indicators, from mental health and delayed early years development in “Covid babies” to declining school attendance and rising numbers of kids entering care.

This month, children’s doctors said Britain was experiencing a growing children’s mental health crisis and failing to tackle growing child obesity and tooth decay, while former prime minister Gordon Brown described young people as the forgotten victims of a “poverty epidemic”.

The ADCS criticism comes in a report seven years on from the group’s 2017 paper warning of the growing impact on young people of austerity and welfare cuts. The new report says the outlook for children, exacerbated by the pandemic and cost of living crisis, has deteriorated since then.

John Pearce, the ADCS president, said the nation was at a “pivotal moment” in its approach to children, after years in which the needs of young people had taken a back seat to public spending cuts, short-term policymaking and political instability.

Pearce said because children did not vote they had not been made a political priority. “Every childhood is a critical opportunity for us to make a difference. However, if the status quo continues I worry about the lives and life chances that are being left behind.”

The government had failed to deliver a comprehensive Covid recovery plan for schools and its modest ambitions in this respect were too narrowly focused on academic catch-up, he said. “We should have looked at a recovery plan for childhood, rather than just for education,” said Pearce.

A childhood Covid recovery plan would have invested in addressing wider wellbeing issues such as anxiety and mental health, the disruption caused by missing key life moments such as transition to secondary school, and the emotional impact of spending long periods away from family and friends during lockdowns, he said.

The ADCS calls for major, multibillion-pound cross-government investment aimed at revitalising schools, children’s health services, youth services and family support programmes, and eradicating social inequalities and poverty.

“A general election is on the horizon [and] a step-change is needed in how government prioritises and invests in children, young people, their families and in public services. Not only is this the right thing to do, but it is the only way to secure this country’s future economic prosperity,” Pearce said.

Deep-rooted inequalities in geography, race, health, educational attainment and income continued to widen, the ADCS said: “Every child deserves a happy, safe childhood in which they can thrive, not just survive, regardless of where they live or how much money their families earn.”

It calls for a review of the impact on children and families of the current benefits system – including the two-child limit, bedroom tax and housing benefit cuts. It notes that while the government plans significant investment in childcare, the emphasis is on getting adults into work rather than improving children’s outcomes.

Pressure on families caused by poverty and the rising cost of living was reflected in greater numbers of children being taken into care, the ADCS said. The exploitation of this by “profiteering” private children’s homes, charging in some cases more than £1m a year for each care placement, was pushing many local authorities towards bankruptcy.

Children’s services directors are senior council officers with legal responsibility for services addressing the education, wellbeing and safeguarding of all children in their council area, especially vulnerable and disadvantaged young people and their families.

The paper calls for a Department for Children to be created to coordinate children’s policy across government. Policymaking on children’s issues has been erratic, nonexistent, or not followed through in recent years, it says. Since 2017 there have been eight education secretaries and nine children’s ministers.

“All too often it seems that where investment in children’s futures is needed, the bare minimum is on offer, whether that’s to repair or rebuild school buildings or support children to recover from the pandemic experience,” the paper says.

The Department for Education was approached for comment.