Cutbacks could hit vulnerable children - Barnardos

Cutbacks in public spending could have a long-term impact on vulnerable children and families and is not the answer to the economic slowdown, children’s charity Barnardos has said.

The charity, which unveiled its Annual Review 2007 today, warned the Government that investment in children, rather than retrenchment, was needed and that critical services for families were already suffering from under-investment and staff shortages.

It called on the Government not to use what is described as “forgotten communities” to make short-term savings.

“The economic impact of cut-backs on ‘forgotten communities’ must be fully recognised. More public investment is needed, not less,” said Barnardos chief executive Fergus Finlay.

“Any cutbacks in, for example, family supports, educational access measures, child protection and welfare budgets, or even policing, could have devastating and long-term consequences. And forgotten communities make easier targets.”

Mr Finlay said providing supports for a child as early as possible was more effective than attempting to address issues at a later stage, and could represent a better investment than other public programmes.

“World leading economists, including the Nobel Prize-winning Professor James Heckman, have proven that intervening early in a vulnerable child’s life will reap enormous long-term savings,” he said.

“Basically, for every euro invested there is at least an eight-fold return as future savings are made in areas such as unemployment benefit, crime, rehabilitation programmes, job training and teenage pregnancies. Getting in early and transforming a child’s life is not only good for the individual; the pay-off to society and to the exchequer is enormous. There are very few public policy programmes that can offer a similar guarantee.”

The Barnardos report found that more than half of children who attended its community-based centres during 2007 were bullied, suffered mental health issues, had low self esteem, poor social skills or had experienced some other risk to their emotional health and well-being.

More than half of children experienced some degree of family or social problems such as family discord, emotional abuse, the separation of parents or little contact with their peers.

Poor social skills were also a cause for concern among the children attending the centres, with about 11 per cent suffering from aggression, while the group were also at risk of low academic achievement, poor school attendance and poor literacy and numeracy skills.

Prof John Fitzgerald of the ESRI said effective policies to were needed to help vulnerable communities.

“Now that funds are scarce it is important to recognise that the highest payback for society is still likely to come from effective intervention with those children whom the system is failing. It is not an easy task but effective action will pay major economic and social dividends in the future.”