City of York council has reduced spending on the services by around £922,000 during the last 10 years, according to research by Pro Bono Economics, a team of economists who help charities improve the impact of their work.

Spending on early intervention support, which prevents children from coming to harm, was around £6.4 million in York in 2020-21, down by 13 per cent since 2010-11 – when taking inflation into account.

This has resulted in a real terms drop from £114 per child to £90 across the last decade. 

However, it is not just York that has seen the drop in spending. A coalition of children’s charities – The Children’s Society, Action for Children, Barnardo’s, National Children’s Bureau and the NSPCC – say that countrywide, councils have struggled with the impact of these Government spending cuts.

Cllr Andrew Waller, City of York Council executive member for children, young people and education, said: "Whilst costs and demand for services rise, government funding is drying up.

"Despite this, since 2019, the council has invested nearly £7 million to provide a better start for York’s children and young people, prioritising these services within tight budgets. This followed years of stringent and far reaching cuts to youth and children’s services.”

Cllr Waller said the council has targeted its funding for children’s services at early intervention support, including children's safeguarding, fostering and adoption support, and providing more resources for young people with special educational needs and disabilities.

He went onto say that the council has been working with local partners, such as schools and the NHS, to reinstate community support services, such as council ward funding, to deliver local support for young people across York.

Researchers at Pro Bono Economics have found that spending on crisis and late intervention services has risen from £6 billion to £8.2 billion in real terms across England over the decade.

In York, this type of spending rose from £15.8 million to £18.4 million in real terms over this time.

Cllr Waller added: “It is vital that the Government heeds the consistent and increasingly urgent warnings that children’s services are now at a tipping point and deliver a long-term strategy that enables councils to meet the growing need for support from some of the most vulnerable children.

“Tinkering at the edges while continuing to pour money into a crumbling system is not working.”

A Government spokesman said: “We have made an additional £3.7 billion available to councils this year alone to help them deliver key services and support families.

“We are backing families with better and earlier access to services that keep them safe and healthy, by expanding a network of Family Hubs all over England and increasing investment in the Supporting Families programme, which is helping to keep up to 300,000 families together safely and provide loving homes for children."