Funding cuts mean support has been diverted away from early help services into protecting children at immediate risk of harm, council leaders have warned.
The Action for Children charity said the UK is 'sleepwalking into a crisis of childhood' with young people struggling to achieve at school, fit in with their peers and cope with wider anxieties over issues such as Brexit, poverty and the climate crisis.
Anntoinette Bramble, chair of the Local Government Association’s children and young people board, said: 'With demand for urgent child protection services increasing rapidly, councils have been forced to divert funding away from vital early help services into protecting children at immediate risk of harm.
'It is essential that the Government heeds the consistent and increasingly urgent warnings that children’s services are now at a tipping point, and uses the upcoming Spending Review to deliver a long-term strategy that enables councils to ensure that all children can have the bright futures they deserve.’
