'Bright Futures' campaign

Question 1

Children’s Services

1) Issue

Answer 1

1) Councils have worked hard to protect budgets for essential child protection services, but funding pressures have led to difficult decisions elsewhere, leaving children and young people unable to access support until they reach breaking point.

Question 2

Children’s Services

Asks (3):

Answer 2

1) Plug the growing £2bn funding gap for children’s services by 2020
- CS vital for many families so must be fully funded = ensure vulnerable children get the appropriate support/protection they need

2) Reverse the cuts to early intervention funding to local councils
- Without this funding, ouncils have found it increasingly difficult to invest in the early help services, such as children’s centres and family support, that can prevent children entering the social care system, and help to manage needs within families to avoid them escalating.

3) Share the Department for Education’s £300 million budget for improvement and innovation in children’s services with councils
- Devolving a proportion of this budget to councils would help deliver an enhanced programme of sector-led support for children’s services, offering everything from regular ‘health checks’ and training for lead members and senior officers, to specific support for those councils judged to require improvement.

Question 3

Bright Futures: our vision for youth services

Believe that this resource will provide a starting point in … (2)

Answer 3

• Taking a fresh look at youth provision

- Encouraging true collaboration between all providers, to give every young person the bright future they deserve

Question 4

Bright Futures: CAMHS

1) Stats of children affected by mental health
2) Inability to access treatment

Answer 4

1) 1/10 children and young people are affected by mental health problems
2) Lack of funding is leaving service thresholds so high that around 75% of young people experiencing a mental health problem are unable to access any treatment