IT WOULD be wonderful if all children were born into caring, loving homes and raised with aspirations and encouragement.
Unfortunately, the reality for too many is, at the best, benign neglect and a lack of parental interest.
At the worst, there is unspeakable abuse.
I once interviewed a team from the NSPCC who worked with emotionally damaged children.
They kept a box of tissues in the office and said that it was not uncommon for staff to weep after dealing with particularly poignant and pitiful cases.
And these were people used to stories of neglect and abuse.
There are few more pressing problems for society than how to transform the lives of the poorest and most deprived children.
If we do nothing, such children will grow into disaffected adults and the criminals of tomorrow.
Mental illness, drug addiction, unemployability and unhappiness await those whose lives are blighted from an early age by ineffectual or just plain bad parenting.
That’s why Governments need to make care for the very young a priority and why funding for schemes such as Sure Start should be ring-fenced, not cut.
It makes no sense at all to complain about the cost of the welfare state, prisons, policing and the justice system without looking at the causes of society’s ills and seeking to redress them.
Unfortunately, care for young families, to help them get on the right track, is expensive and a long-term solution to an urgent problem.
It will not produce immediate, cash-saving results.
A friend of mine, who works for Sure Start – and has a background in the probation service–- says that the scheme does what it was set up to do and gives help to those who need it, educating parents and improving children’s lives.
What we need are MORE such schemes, and yet only this week a row has erupted over how to cut Sure Start budgets in Kirklees in order to save £1.5m in the next two years.
It will be a false economy in the long term, I’m sure of it.
