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  • • Nearly half of children in care have a mental health disorder
  • • 4.3 million children in the UK are living in poverty
  • • Nearly half of children in care have a mental health disorder
  • • 1.4 million children & young people have a probable mental health disorder
  • • 1 in 5 babies aren’t receiving their entitled health visiting check at one year old

Responding to today’s Autumn Budget, the Children’s Charities Coalition – Action for Children, Barnardo’s, the National Children’s Bureau, NSPCC, and The Children’s Society – said:

“The needs of children and families have for too long been overlooked. Whilst there are welcome announcements in today’s Budget – including extra funding for social care and SEND provision, and action to reduce the burden of debt deductions in Universal Credit – these are tweaks rather than the systemic change that is needed. It is disappointing that the Government has not taken this opportunity to invest more strategically in services for children.

“Piecemeal, sticking plaster approaches to funding have got us to the crisis point we now find ourselves in. Recent decades show that only strategic investment in prevention and early intervention can tackle the root causes of the high levels of children entering care and the epidemic of poor mental health amongst children and young people. It is critical that these first steps are built upon at the multi-year Spending Review in Spring 2025.

“We welcome the Government’s long-term commitment to a Child Poverty Strategy, but we are deeply disappointed by its failure to provide immediate relief to families this winter by scrapping the two-child limit, which would lift an estimated 300,000 children out of poverty immediately.

“The Government has also confirmed its commitment to further reforms to children’s social care in future spending reviews, but children’s social care is in crisis today. Our research from 2023 found the potential social cost of a two-year delay in implementing wholesale reform to be £500 million per year over the next 30 years. Further delays will see this escalate.

“The multi-year Spending Review in the spring must deliver the long-term investments in services and benefits system needed to prevent more children and families reaching crisis point.”