Covid has amplified many of the problems facing vulnerable children, but the country’s care system was already falling apart
- Anne Longfield is the former children’s commissioner for England
Even before Covid arrived, local authority children’s services were struggling to cope as children with more complex and expensive needs have entered the care system. As today’s Guardian investigation reveals, the bandages and sticking plasters that have held a creaking children’s social care system in place are now fraying under the strain of the pandemic, particularly in some of the most deprived parts of England.
The present system cannot financially support children already in its care, never mind those on the verge of crisis who are often not receiving any help at all. Resources are stretched, systems fragmented, and we have an early years system that is patchy and often failing to identify and help struggling families. Too many children start school with developmental problems with speech and language, or live in families with serious but hidden problems around domestic abuse, mental health or addiction. Many are living in poverty, with some even taken into care simply because their family is too poor to look after them – not because they are being abused or harmed.
