Testimonies
How will cutting our team – which supports vulnerable children – help the economy?

I work for a team that works in primary schools to support vulnerable children at risk of exclusion, from school and from wider society. We are often the first outside professionals to support schools in passing on serious concerns re potential abuse, mental health problems etc. Where at all possible we keep children in their schools and local communities and offer practical help to them and their families to change their lives and get back on track. The children are often the victims of their parents problems - housing/ poverty/ unemployment/ substance abuse/ family breakdown etc. By keeping them in school, acheiving and having hope for the future there is hope for breaking cycles of deprivation and under acheivement.
In a local authority that has failed safeguarding children two years running, this team has been cut. People with years of expertise, skill and dedication to public service are on the scrapheap. claiming pensions early and job seekers allowance instead of contributing £1000s of pounds a month in tax and national insurance. More children will be excluded form school and sent to expensive specialist provisions. Maybe destined for lives of unemploymen or minimum wage jobs, substance abuse, mental health problems or even crime as a result of feeling like failures. Please explain how this is helping the economy - anyone??
- Posted by: Despairing in the South East at 5:38pm on 22 January 2011
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