Libby, Programme Writer at Kids Matter, shares a personal story about icy roads, struggling councils and why everyone benefits when families get stronger.
Back in January my local area had several days in a row of snow and ice and some of our local roads became quite scary! I commented to a colleague in a different part of the UK that I’d seen several cars skidding while I was out on the school run and they were surprised. They asked ‘Haven’t the roads been gritted?’ This was the norm for all roads where they lived whereas in my area only the major roads were gritted.
Like many local authorities mine has been under more and more pressure in recent years and the result is that all sorts of services have faced budget cuts. For us some signs of this are limited access to recycling facilities, shorter and less predictable opening hours in libraries, and huge cuts to special educational need (SEN) support in schools.
What does this have to do with Kids Matter? The community I live in has one of the highest proportions in the UK of children in foster care. The cost to the local authority is phenomenal! One report from 2024 estimated that the average cost of a placement for a child in care is more than £5000 a week, or upwards of £260,000 per year.
When a local area has a high number of children in care placements the costs of social care spiral and it is inevitable that other services will have to be cut. So we get fewer libraries, less recycling, less funding for schools AND those roads just aren’t going to get consistently gritted.
When we support families who are facing challenges there is an opportunity to make a real difference, and not only for those families. If parents and children are supported with an early intervention there is less chance of families reaching a crisis point. Fewer families in crisis ultimately leads to fewer children needing to be placed in social care. And when fewer social care placements are needed, the cost to local authorities is reduced and other services can be funded more effectively – so we all benefit!
This term I’ve been facilitating Kids Matter in my local community along with a team from my church. We are just about to reach session 6. As a church we believe that by supporting local families we can also expect to see benefits for the whole of our community.
It’s my opinion that supporting families is one of the most effective things churches and other organisations could do to help their local community to thrive. I may be biased, but I think Kids Matter’s programmes are one of the very best ways we can do that!