Unacceptable, unnecessary harm to vulnerable adolescents being failed by maze of services

Source Public Accounts Committee Published 22nd February 2023

The estimated lifetime cost of adverse outcomes for all children who have ever needed a social worker is £23 billion every year. In a report today the Public Accounts Committee says the social and personal costs of harm and adverse outcomes to vulnerable adolescents who are being failed by the system are unacceptably and unnecessarily high.

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• Find all publications related to this inquiry, including oral and written evidence

There is a ‘puzzling reluctance’ across Whitehall to provide strategic leadership, while fragmented ownership across agencies and departments leaves young people to fall through the cracks. The safeguarding structures are not working in some areas, sometimes with tragic consequences.  With no one department or agency with overall responsibility, the risk is that the buck gets passed.

The Committee is extremely concerned about the waiting time for children to receive support for mental health issues, with some of a group of 750 children and young people in Gloucestershire waiting over 18 months for mental health treatment. 

More information at source: Unacceptable, unnecessary harm to vulnerable adolescents being failed by maze of services