When will we learn that supporting struggling families helps us all?

[Linedbook]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-68763942

Rather than vilifying a struggling mother family why can't we as a country/population/community support them, saving money and improving outcomes in the long term?

Children from deprived households, living near a Sure Srart centre at 5yo, got getter GCSE results and fewer hospital admissions.

I'd like to see the same research for antisocial and criminal behaviour in their teens too. I'd bet there's a difference, but "we" don't vote for policies where our cash will be spent supporting poor or struggling families 😪

I think the whole Tory austerity programme has done massive damage to the country, it probably even contributed to the Brexit vote (more massive damage), SS was just one casualty. Austerity didn't even do the one thing it meant to do, put the country on a better financial footing. It just made everything worse.

Which didn't end up happening 😥

It's so so easy to destroy things. Place a few doubts about how well targeted or fair something is, focus on a few pence now rather than huge societal benefits and savings later. Pit people against each other.

Absolutely. What’s sad is that economists mostly predicted this. It was not a sound economic policy. But because it made a good sound bite of “all in this together, tightening our belts” people went along with it. We do need to be more savvy as an electorate…..

I have also thought of something else I did there got vitamins for my baby and also purchased safety gates ( were a bit cheaper than shops .

Our local one also had a sensory room that you could book out . Again supporting parents but something useful for parents of children with disabilities .

councils are struggling to fund legally required funding . I litterally don’t understand how funding from central government is cut year after year and expecting things to improve

They worked out somewhere clever that for every £1 on sure start centres would save £3 in costs such as social services and, social care. This did not include the costs that come about with better social cohesion, better educational outcomes, lower crime rates, improved speech etc.
I loved our sure start centre. It was used by a massive range of people and had the best support when I was on my knees with DS1.
Fucking Tories may they lose the next election and not return for decades. (Obviously they will be back because the media is so biased and people can't see it).