Speaking on Sky News, Serenity Welfare founder and CEO Emily Aklan discusses how £7 billion could be shaved off the UK taxpayer’s bill over ten years as a result of care system reform.
Official figures show that on March 31, 2020, 80,080 children were being looked after in the UK, equivalent to 67 children under the age of 18 in every 10,000. During the Covid-19 pandemic, this number has only increased, and the growing demand on the care system will only bring a higher bill year-on-year for the UK taxpayer to support such services, as well as provide for growing prison populations and homelessness rates fuelled by young people who emerge from the care system without an education and subsequently turn to crime or end up living on the streets.
However, Emily Aklan [pictured], founder and CEO of Serenity Welfare, a provider of secure transport and welfare services for looked-after children and young people, believes that the UK taxpayer could save £7 billion in ten years if attitudes toward children and young people in care were to change and a new approach within the care system were to be taken.
Aklan believes that any revised approach toward dealing with looked after children and young people should come with a focus on early intervention and education, to help them fulfil their full potential and avoiding the prospect of living on the streets in future and potentially turning to crime.
The £7 billion figure for estimated savings to the UK taxpayer originated in a new report compiled by Serenity Welfare, and Aklan took to Sky News to discuss its findings and her thoughts about what a more cost-effective and humane approach to care could look like.
Recalling the days when she first established her organisation, Aklan said that she was surprised by the proliferation of negative attitudes toward young people in the care system, with many having been tagged with labels such as “problematic” or “damaged” without any context.
Aklan told Sky News’ Kimberley Leonard: “When I first started Serenity Welfare, I was surprised to find that there is unfortunately a very negative attitude towards the most vulnerable children in our society and I found that, in reality, they are vulnerable and in care through no fault of their own.
“Our attitudes toward children in care need to change because they are more likely to achieve their full potential if we treat them as we would want to be treated and understand that they come across as ‘damaged’ or ‘problematic’ for a reason that is not down to them.”
Indeed, Aklan feels that a significant part of the problem is that, when children and young people enter the care system, they are instantly treated as a problem or an inconvenience rather than a person.
She explained: “Unfortunately, I think that society generally thinks that children who are in care are being well cared for in the system. In many cases, they are, but unfortunately, they are sometimes not being well looked after. This is because they are being treated as problematic or high risk and generally, this comes about because of them being previously traumatised. Being in care is not a very pleasant feeling most of the time for a lot of young people, and that in itself can be traumatic for them.”
Aklan went on to say that the Covid-19 pandemic has put a great many more children ‘on the edge of care' and likely to enter the system, because the resulting lockdowns have helped fuel family breakdowns and mental health problems.
“There has been an increase in the number of children entering the care system during the Covid outbreak due to family breakdowns and there are a lot of mental health issues stemming from the lockdown restrictions. Children have been exposed in some cases to family domestic violence that they have not been able to escape from because of being locked down, and this is just one of the many reasons some may be taken into care.”
Although the number of young people entering the care system may be on the rise, Aklan stressed that care reform will avoid greater numbers in the system equalling greater expense in future.
“We really need to look at our care system. It is a system that needs to be reformed, our mindsets for children in care need to change, and we need to understand that they are vulnerable children in the care system and that they are not problematic, and they need nurturing and to be able to fulfil their full potential. We need to look at early intervention especially within a new approach, which is something we are promoting as part of our Hope Instead of Handcuffs campaign.”
Aklan also believes that mentoring children and young people in the care system should form an integral part of any future strategy, and that this is something that has proven successful within Serenity Welfare already.
“We at Serenity Welfare provide mentoring along with a multitude of other services, and we have found that mentored children and young people are very much engaged positively with their mentors and engage very well with different interventions that we put together.
“The report we have put together serves as evidence that if we were to take this approach and treat cared for children as people rather than problems, we could save the taxpayer £7 billion a decade and reduce homelessness and prison populations. The burden on society comes because a lot of cared for children do not reach their full potential and end up homeless or in prison, because they have been more likely to go without an education or be deprived of opportunities and training. Education is therefore a key part of the solution.”
