Amid the devastating financial situation in the social care sector, news that vulnerable children and young people are not receiving help until they’re at crisis point will come as no surprise to those working in the profession.

The charity Action for Children found that up to 140,000 children flagged to social services because of abuse or neglect are falling through the cracks in the system in England.

Austerity measures have led to drastic child prevention cuts, and the shrinking and abandoning of a number of services. This comes at a time when reports of child neglect have risen by more than 60% in the past five years, putting ever increasing pressure on remaining staff. Nine out of 10 calls to the NSPCC are now deemed serious enough to refer to social services or the police.

Why is this? We asked two social workers to describe what it’s like on the ground.



‘Vulnerable children are slipping through the net’

The most worrying thing is that the social care landscape has changed so dramatically. I now see cases that would have been flagged up by early help services but aren’t – either those services aren’t there any more due to funding cuts, or are struggling under enormous workloads. This means that vulnerable children who should have been classed as in need are slipping through the net and are only picked up again once they reach the escalated level of child protection – or worse, not picked up at all.

Some of the cases I deal with would previously have been sent to Sure Start (an early help service), but are now flagged with schools and GPs to see if they can put a team around the child. It’s just passing the buck. No one means to do it but cuts have savaged the entire network and we’re under ridiculous pressure, with ever-increasing caseloads coupled with the stripping away of our own support networks. On top of this, we’re spending an unnecessary amount of time in front of computers because we’re using outdated computer systems.

Anonymous social worker working in children’s services in London

‘We know what is happening but funding cuts mean we can’t prevent cases from escalating like we used to’

I was part of a specialist early help team called Assertive Outreach that worked with at-risk teenagers with mental health issues who didn’t engage or comply with standard services. They were often at risk of homelessness and affected by multiple issues, such as being in trouble with the police or alcohol and drug addictions.



We helped these individuals to get back on their feet and prevented them from being referred on. But the team was disbanded as it apparently cost too much. We were absorbed into mainstream services and given standard cases, while still being expected to continue our specialist work.

Our caseloads jumped from an average of 18 to 30, which meant our face-to-face time with these teenagers dropped from 70% of our work to less than 50%. We became snowed under with referrals and the mountains of paperwork that comes with them.

I still work in the north-west and the problems my colleagues and I are facing have got worse. Austerity measures such as the bedroom tax have forced people who were on, or close to, the breadline to dig deeper into their pockets, only to find nothing there. Out of desperation, they are turning to drink and drugs to get away from the pressures, which in turn has put them into the system.

We know this is happening but cuts to funding, problems keeping experienced staff and loss of early-help services mean we can’t prevent these cases from escalating into full-blown state intervention like we used to.

Graham Hennis, independent social worker, north-west England

Join the Social Care Network for comment, analysis and job opportunities, direct to your inbox. Follow us on Twitter (@GdnSocialCare) and like us on Facebook. If you are a social worker with a story you’d like to share, read our guidelines and email us at socialcare@theguardian.com.



If you’re looking for a social care job or need to recruit staff, visit Guardian Jobs.