It is a well worn cliché that our children are our future but the decisions we make now will have repercussions in the long term, not just for them, but for us all. Action for Children and nef (the new economics foundation) have set out in the report Backing the Future what level of investment in what interventions need to be put in place to bring the UK out of its nadir, languishing at the bottom of nearly every European league table for preventable social problems – crime, mental ill health, family breakdown, drug use and obesity – into a place where children feel loved, are free from poverty, have supportive relationships and feel happy and safe.
With the recession biting it is as hard as ever to win support for a new way of going about investing in children. But the recession makes it even more important that we seize this opportunity to invest in services that work for our children and young people. That is exactly what Backing the Future recommends – that we invest in effective and efficient services that support a change in emphasis from spending on acute services to prioritising early intervention in order to address preventable social problems.
We found that if inefficient spending continues the cost to the UK economy of dealing with social problems could reach as much as £4 trillion over the next 20 years without addressing the root cause of the problems – dwarfing the overall cost of the MPs’ expenses scandal which has taken up so many column inches. The rewards of instead spending money now are compelling: a 10-year investment of £191 billion in targeted interventions such as working with families to keep children out of the care system, or improving parenting skills, will deliver a net return of £269 billion. This support for the most vulnerable should be accompanied by an investment of £428 billion in universal childcare and paid parental leave, which will deliver a net return of £606 billion over 20 years and eventually render many of the targeted interventions unnecessary.
With the recession continuing to hit the most vulnerable in society hardest, providing politicians with hard evidence as to how to get the most bang for the tax payer’s buck is an important first step to reshaping the way we invest in our children and breaking the cycle of disadvantage.
We know intuitively that picking problems up early is best but the key to achieving policy change is to lift barriers that for too long have created a bar to investment and implementation. This is the major challenge confronting politicians and, ultimately, us all.
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