Increasing demand for early intervention support, driven by rising poverty levels and a growing inequality gap has resulted in greater demands on charities to support some of the country’s most vulnerable children. At the same time there have been shifts in the policies for preventative services and local authority spend has declined, leaving many local charities in crisis. This has a natural knock on effect on traditional organisational structures such as education, health and social care.
Dr Body therefore argues that there was no time like the present to release ‘Children’s Charities in Crisis: Early Intervention and the State’, which presents original research spanning 2008–2018 drawing on the relationship between children’s charities and the state.
With insights from 80 individuals from across 40 micro-to-major children’s charities delivering children’s early intervention-type services and 20 Commissioners responsible for commissioning some of these charities’ services, Body shares the lived experiences of those working with and on the frontline of children’s charities.
The book pays close attention to commissioning and the ways that contracts are secured, deliberating the bureaucratic powers involved. It looks at children’s charities’ struggles to act independently and speak out with a critical voice and suggests how collaborative change is imperative.
‘Children’s Charities in Crisis: Early Intervention and the State’ by Dr Alison Body, is available from Policy Press: https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/childrens-charities-in-crisis
‘To those of us who’ve lived, worked and breathed the children’s charity sector for the last decade, this will be an authentic picture of what’s happening and why. To any reader who wants to learn about us, this pretty much covers it all!’ – Kathy Evans, CEO, Children England