THE Children’s Society has reported an operating loss in 2023-24 of £4.4 million, as demand for help from children has surged. Public services struggle to address increased costs and reduced budgets, the charity reports.
The charity’s 2024 Annual Impact Report says that 8000 more young people than the 12 months before drew on its support last 12 months. Its income reduced by 16 per cent, while expenditure increased. The loss was partially offset by a gain in investments. The rest was absorbed by what the charity calls “strong reserves” of £19.2 million, corresponding to slightly below six months’ total expenditure.
The Church of England charity’s chief executive, Mark Russell, said that record numbers of youngsters were in crisis, and yet support available from publicly funded organisations had been reduced as public-sector budgets had been cut. The increased support offered this 12 months by the charity couldn’t be maintained without “wider change”, he said.
Intervention was often coming too late for a lot of young people, after they were already in crisis. “Early intervention is crucial to stop crises before they escalate, and is the important thing to us turning across the damaging decline in children’s well-being, and to setting a path for long-lasting growth.”
Poverty, poor mental health, and exploitation are growing reasons for the rise in demand, the society says. The past 12 months “has been one of the crucial difficult yet for young people and their families, and indeed for the charities and public services that seek to support them”, it reports.
“Across the country, children’s needs are being ignored. For too many young people facing abuse, exploitation, and neglect, help is barely offered after they reach crisis point. The Children’s Society’s Good Childhood Report 2023 revealed that shockingly, 10 per cent of the kids and young individuals who accomplished our annual survey in 2023 had low wellbeing, and almost a 3rd were unhappy with at the very least one specific area of their lives. Twenty-nine per cent live in poverty, and hundreds are facing huge challenges like exploitation, abuse, and neglect. Things cannot proceed as they’re.”
Last 12 months, the charity offered direct support to 72,016 children in 2023/24, compared with 63,779 young people the previous 12 months. More than 11,000 of those were using crisis-support services. The charity is committed to expanding its early-intervention work to forestall young people from reaching crisis point, and it also offers support to oldsters and carers.
The charity has welcomed legislative proposals to guard children from exploitation, but called on the Government to place children’s needs at the center of its policies more broadly.
