Cost of living crisis and vulnerable young people

The cost of living crisis is impacting the vast majority of people in the UK. Inevitably, however, the worst effects will be experienced by the poorest and most vulnerable members of society. This has potentially dire consequences for children and their families who fall into that bracket. At the height of the Covid pandemic, Marcus Rashford was the public face of feeding hungry children; now reports are emerging about the children of families who don’t qualify for free school meals.

As everyday bills for basic items such as food and energy surge, it is forcing an increasing number of families into poverty. This has far reaching consequences for society. Domestic abuse is expected to rise, since it will become increasingly difficult for people to flee such situations and go it alone; instead they will be trapped in horrifying circumstances simply in order to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. Where there are children involved in such family units, childhood trauma will increase, too. Who will be left to deal with this? Education, social and youth justice workers, many of whom themselves will be left in a precarious position by the cost of living crisis.

There have been several reports in the press about children going hungry at school. “Headteachers said that the group causing them “most alarm” are not children from the very poorest families, but the layer just above that who do not qualify for free school meals and risk going a whole day without food or with wholly inadequate lunches,” said one prominent report in The Evening Standard.

More families forced in poverty and the impact on children

There are practical concerns around the cost of living crisis for children in and around the poverty line. Children with identified special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are far more likely to come from low income households. Some 37.2% of children who have identified SEND qualify for free school meals. 19.7% of pupils without SEND qualify.

Taking this further, 56.2% of looked after children (LAC) have identified SEND. The most common type of need for LAC is ‘social, emotional and mental health.’

In 2021, the last time statistics were published by the government on the subject, 80,850 children were LAC in England. This number steadily increases year on year, so it’s reasonable to predict that the cost of living crisis, in placing greater pressure upon families to support their children, will force many past breaking point and result in more LAC.

On top of this, 400,000 children are in the social care system. Again, in a time of social strife, it’s not unreasonable to predict a rise in this number, too.

How can our services react?

The obvious fix is money. Sadly, that’s unlikely to be forthcoming. From Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget which did so much damage to the short term outlook of the UK economy, to current prime minister, Rishi Sunak exploring tax increases and public spending cuts, it’s clear that the government will be pursuing cuts in public spending in one form or another. A report from the Resolution Foundation economic think tank suggests that the government needs to find £40bn to rebalance the UK’s finances. Social care, youth justice and education will all be affected.

So, there won’t be any more money available to services that interact with vulnerable young people. As the report in The Evening Standard highlights, concern is now spreading away from those eligible for free school meals to those in the bracket just above them. To borrow another line from that report: “Up to 800,000 children in England live in households on universal credit that do not qualify for free school meals because their annual household earnings (excluding benefits) exceed £7,400, according to the Child Poverty Action Group. This risibly low threshold — of just £617 a month after tax — is applied by the Government irrespective of the number of children in the family and mostly impacts low-income working families.”

The social interpretation of ‘poverty’, as well as the literal one, requires redefining. That’s not something that can be achieved easily or quickly, so what can be done in the here and now?

Efficiency getting the most from available services

Efficiency is one way that services interacting with vulnerable children can, simply put, provide more services to more children. This will be vital in identifying and responding to children with SEND, as well as processing information on children such as their eligibility for free school meals and uniforms.

If staff are bogged down in administrative tasks, it impacts their ability to focus on improving outcomes for these children. What staff in children’s services are best at is helping those children achieve the best possible outcomes. If admin can be left to technology and automation, where possible, this helps to free up time.

In the case of vulnerable young people, those 400,000 in the social care system as well as those 1.49m pupils (16.5% of all pupils) with identified SEND, multiple agencies will be involved in their journey.

How can shared learnings be applied across agencies? Several expert opinions will be applied to each journey, so sharing this information across agencies will help in forming a stronger, better informed opinion of each child.

Conclusion

With inflation sky rocketing, energy bills soaring and wages failing to keep pace, there will obviously be a challenging time for many people. The links between poverty and SEND are clear, though.

So too, are the links between disadvantage and activities such as County Lines drug gangs. In desperate times, the apparent carrot of an easy way out will leave countless more young people vulnerable to these types of activity. It is estimated that as many as 50,000 young people are involved in County Lines activities across the UK. The temptation to make ‘easy money’ with such gangs will only grow with the cost of living crisis.

This is another situation where data and insight will be so important. There are various estimates as to the number of children missing education depending upon your definition of missing education, but those not accessing full time education is around the 50,000 mark. This might be coincidence, but such insight is valuable in protecting and safeguarding vulnerable young people.

As such threats increase in society, services being aware of them is a significant first step in attempting to resolve them.

The number of children in poverty will certainly increase. With that, crime will rise. Pressure on education, youth justice and social workers will increase, too. The link between poverty and SEND is apparent, creating another burden on already stretched resources.

Making the best use of the resources available is paramount. It has always been important, but never more so than now.

For more information on how technology can support local authorities, schools, parents, professionals and youth justice teams in improving outcomes for vulnerable young people, please visit our website here.