More early help spending may improve performance ratings
By Gemma Raw
New research suggests that better Ofsted ratings for local authority children's services are associated not only with lower levels of deprivation, but also with higher spending on early help and family support.
This new study contradicts previous research. In a 2018 paper published in the British Journal of Social Work, a clear link was identified between deprivation and Ofsted ratings. However, while this earlier research found that expenditure was linked to a local authority's deprivation level, it didn't seem to impact on their Ofsted rating.
For the new study, researchers combined 374 Ofsted inspection outcomes between 2011 and 2019 with data on preventative and safeguarding expenditure and Indices of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) scores. Their modelling suggested that each £100 increase in preventative spending per child was associated with around a 1.7x increase in the odds of receiving a 'Good' or 'Outstanding' Ofsted rating.
The study also showed a significant gap between expenditure in different local authorities.Over the 2010 decade, the highest level of expenditure per child on early help and family support-related services was around £1,000 and the lowest was around £90, with the average local authority spending somewhere between £220 and £380.
What is 'early help'?
Early help (or early intervention) is support provided when a problem first emerges. Early help services can be delivered to parents, children or whole families, but their main focus is to improve outcomes for children. Statutory guidance in each nation of the UK highlights the importance of providing early intervention, rather than waiting until a child or family’s situation escalates and they meet the statutory threshold for social workers to get involved.
Missed opportunities
In a report published in March, charity Action for Children said that not enough early help is happening and that 'early intervention spending is neither equitable or well allocated'. They estimate that, between 2015-16 and 2019-20, 320,000 children were re-referred to social workers within 12 months of a closed assessment which didn't lead to an early help referral.
There may be many reasons for children not being referred for early help. However, Action for Children's believes that the best explanation is unlikely to lie in the individual decisions made by those in social work. "The ‘early help offer’ that a local authority has in place is an important determinant of which children can receive help, and therefore where a child can be referred," the report says.
Responding to the Action for Children research, the Local Government Association (LGA) told Community Care that councils recognised the importance of early help services but 'soaring demand' meant they had to make 'exceptionally difficult decisions about where to focus their spending'.
Anntoinette Bramble, chair of the LGA’s Children and Young People Board, commented, “Councils want to be able to provide the very best support for children, which is why we are urging government to work with councils on a child-centred, cross-government pandemic recovery plan which offers the very best future for children and families.”
