Smart spending can produce big government savings, says charity

8 September 2010

Huge savings can be made in public spending in Scotland and across the rest of the UK if politicians invest in the right services, says one of the country's leading charities.

Action for Children Scotland has responded to a call from the Scottish Parliament's finance committee for evidence on how best to reduce public spending.

It has produced an analysis of the economic and social impact of its preventative services which shows that up to £9 can be saved from every £1 spent if services act early to prevent problems within families spiraling out of control. The savings come from reducing social problems including crime, mental ill health, family breakdown, drug use and obesity.

It is based on work carried out in 2009 by the New Economics Foundation (NEF) which assessed the impact of a number of Action for Children's early intervention services across the UK. NEF found that these services were successful at fixing problems within families at an early stage and preventing the need for greater spending by stopping problems developing into crises.

At the moment too much is spent on dealing with the consequences of social problems such as crime, drug abuse and homelessness and not enough on preventing these becoming problems in the first place. The NEF analysis, contained in a report called Backing the Future, suggests that £460 billion – five times the annual cost of the NHS- could be saved across the UK in the next 20 years if the focus is on preventing problems rather than dealing with the consequences.

The director of children's Services for Action for Children Scotland, Louise Warde Hunter said: "There has been a long term understanding and belief in the benefits of early intervention and prevention– but with too little action to back it up. We believe the evidence we have provided to the Scottish Parliament is compelling. If we want to create a better Scotland, we need to address today's problems at a much earlier stage. If we do that, we can save money in the long run.

It would be tragic, however, if the very services that can help us build this better future end up being the ones that are cut to make the short term savings that are needed to reduce public spending. “

NEF included an analysis of the impact of East Dunbartonshire Family Support services which provides short term focused and flexible support for children, young people and families in crisis. NEF employs an innovative approach to measuring and valuing the economic and social benefit of services. It concluded that for every £1 invested annually in the East Dunbartonshire service, society benefits from between £7.60 and £9.20 in social value created. This mainly arose from reduced costs in preventing children being brought into care, lower rates of offending and problem behaviour, lower welfare payments and long term benefits such as increased tax revenues from better paid employment arising out of better performance at school.

East Dunbartonshire is just one of the many examples of how Action for Children is helping and supporting families to deal early and effectively with problems. This is helping to foster family relationships, improve local community links, and increase education and employment possibilities.

Case Study

Paul aged 12 and his 15 month old sister Grace were placed on the child protection register and then taken into care following concern about their parents' drinking.

Action for Children's East Dunbartonshire Family Support service was asked to intervene to try to resolve the difficulties within the family and bring the children back home. The situation was already taking a heavy toll on Paul whose challenging and demanding behaviour was starting to cause problems.

It became clear from the outset that the parents, Kirsty and James, did not accept or understand that their drinking was the problem. Sessions were held two to three times a week to help them realise the negative impact their drinking was having and the risks it was exposing their children to. This included exploring when it was they thought they were performing well as parents. This was then contrasted with when they were drinking.

"This was the real light-bulb moment, " recalled one of the staff. "They both realised that they did not parent as they described when under the influence of alcohol."

From there, Kirsty and James began to work with addiction services to reduce their reliance on alcohol. Their home life improved and the children returned home, with further support from Action for Children staff to help develop consistency in their parenting. This support also helped them to cope without resorting to alcohol.

The family drew up a contract which laid down what they expected from each other and how that was going to be achieved. For Paul, it has meant stability for the first time in his life. "I feel included and my family is happier", he said. "Working with Action for Children got me home. I will grow up knowing I am in a safe place."

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