The recently published Allen review could be the catalyst needed to change the way we intervene in the lives of at risk children and families.

VCF, the Victoria Climbié Foundation, welcomes the report by Graham Allen MP and its proposal for the creation of an Early Intervention Foundation.

The proposals, alongside the creation of local intervention places, would go a long way towards correcting the imbalance in the social care system where families and children only receive help and assistance when they are already deeply affected by various social problems.

In his report, Allen makes a total of 34 recommendations including:

  • All parties should commit to the central objective of Early Intervention to give a social and emotional bedrock to current and future generations;
  • that there needs to be a cultural change in society towards an early intervention culture; and
  • The expansion of 19 top programmes already working towards supporting early intervention.

Allen’s report goes on to note that: “Early Intervention to promote social and emotional development can significantly improve mental and physical health, educational attainment and employment opportunities. Early Intervention can also help to prevent criminal behaviour (especially violent behaviour), drug and alcohol abuse and teenage pregnancy.”

These frank findings validate much of what VCF has been saying over the past 10 years. We have seen, through the experiences of our clients and commenting on public interest cases, that where an opportunity for early intervention is grasped, children and families can avoid long term difficulties.

However we must urge caution in the application of early intervention in any one size fits all approach.

As we have seen demonstrated by a number of our clients, families with specific cultural and faith backgrounds often need to be supported by early intervention policies that recognise these backgrounds.

For example, early intervention to address healthy eating in families needs to recognise cultural factors where traditional foods and eating habits may differ from the UK norm. In such scenarios, suggesting a new diet would be self -defeating.

Any push towards greater use of early intervention policies must also be in line with other social care policies.

The plethora of tragic cases we have seen over the past few years has highlighted how we continue to fail children and families. All too often we have learnt that the authorities knew of information that would have justified them acting earlier.

We expect that this approach would change on publication of the Munro Review.

Her review is reportedly set to encourage a new approach by social workers towards caring for families on a more personal level instead of only intervening and responding when children and families are already in crisis.

These two approaches, early intervention alongside a greater personal involvement by social workers and child protection specialists, if managed in an appropriate manner, could do wonders for families who feel that they are placed within an impersonal system.