A report published today by the Commission on Young Lives, argues that thousands of teenagers from all backgrounds are ending up in care and at risk from exploitation, grooming and harm because their families aren’t getting the support they need.

They also warn that the government’s new commitment to funding Family Hubs, will not reverse the impact of a sharp reduction in Sure Start centres.

The report, titled: ‘‘A New Partnership with Families: Supporting families to keep teenagers safe from gangs, exploitation and abuse”, calls for a new partnership with families to safeguard vulnerable teenagers and divert them away from serious violence, county lines and exploitation. It warns that thousands of teenagers are being put at risk as services, stretched even further by Covid, are unable to help them. The report highlights a decade of cuts in services and falling support for those families living in poverty and/or homes where there is domestic violence, serious mental health illness or addiction issues.

While the report argues there are currently some examples of good practice, it warns that there remains a dearth of effective joined up family-focused support for teens at risk of extrafamilial harm and argues many families in need of help to avert or deal with crisis are instead facing a blizzard of bureaucracy and assessment or, in some cases, just a brick wall.

Although these problems are most often found in the most disadvantaged communities, the Commission on Young Lives has heard repeatedly from what appears to be a growing number of parents from middle class families struggling to get help when crises occur, such as when they find a burner phone, unexplained amounts of money or knives in their children’s bedrooms.

Parents have told the Commission how sometimes they have called the police and social services desperate for help, only to be told that no help exists, or they have been given ineffective responses. Some parents described having to become ‘instant experts’, trying to navigate issues around grooming, exploitation and county lines and to access services new to them.

Some have told the Commission they had to find the money to pay off their child’s ‘debt bond’ to a gang, to free them. For families already struggling, this is even more difficult – many have fewer resources and lower levels of confidence and trust in statutory services.

The report says many of these stresses are felt particularly acutely by minority ethnic children, and re-emphasises the importance of early intervention and the long-term damage done by reduced public spending in these areas, combined with a rise in child poverty and a continued lack of affordable housing.

It welcomes the government’s pledge to spend £492m on early help services over the next three years, although it notes spending on early intervention support in areas of England with the highest levels of child poverty fell by 53% between 2010 and 2019. Between 2010 and 2020, local government spending on early intervention fell 48% while money spent on later, costlier and higher-intensity interventions increased by 34%.

The report also describes the massive reduction in funding for Sure Start centres “a huge historic mistake” – one that it argues proved to be a false economy. It warns the current plans for Family Hubs are nowhere near ambitious enough to reverse this trend and the government needs to take a more determined and ambitious approach to funding.

Sure Start centres give help and advice on child and family health, parenting, money, training and employment.

Some centres also provide early learning and full day care for pre-school children.

The centres were announced in 1998 by then-Chancellor Gordon Brown.

500 to 1,000 Sure Start centres have shut since 2010 in England, with many more receiving dramatic reductions in funding.

The Commission’s report concludes that long-term – and sometimes intense – support is vital and that this is being delivered successfully in some areas. It makes recommendations around early intervention and family support for children of all ages, focusing on what is needed by families when the problems that place teenagers at risk of extrafamilial harm emerge, as well as interventions at crisis point.

The report’s main recommendations include a legal duty for local agencies to deliver early intervention, including a specific strategy for supporting minority ethnic families.

• It also calls on the government to create Family Hubs in every disadvantaged area with the longer-term ambition to extend coverage to the 3,000 communities who formerly had a Sure Start centre.
• The report also urges practical, long-term help for families to prevent children from being taken into care with a new entitlement for families to help shape the solution. The Department for Education should work with local authorities and other partners to develop and trial new models of intense family support for families with teenagers at risk as part of a Teenager in Need programme.
• These programmes would provide intensive interventions for teenagers on the edge of care to enable them to remain safe and with their families and must also be culturally attuned to support families from ethnic minority communities.