Analysis: with resources eviscerated by austerity cuts, the pandemic has made the problems more acute
The problems faced by England’s children’s services described in the Guardian’s investigation – buckling under the weight of youngsters taken into care and struggling to help vulnerable families in need – are shocking if not surprising. This is a crisis that has been long brewing. The pandemic has made it even more acute.
Three years ago, the Conservative MP and former children’s minister Tim Loughton highlighted the consequences of the “woeful underfunding” of children’s services. He said: “In some places, the pressure … is so acute it is leaving social workers feeling that the only tool available to them to keep a child safe is to remove them from their family.”
