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A Cityforum Round Table

Vulnerable young people and families – meeting their needs

Thursday 28 January 2016

Central London

Disadvantage whether through health - emotional or physical, a lack of education, poor training and skills, family problems, teenage parenthood, substance abuse, or involvement in crime affects nearly half of the young people living in this country; often in multiple ways.  The cost to central and devolved government, local authorities, criminal justice and the health service are enormous, with support to troubled families alone estimated to cost £9 billion per annum.

Public services, already very stretched, face further challenges after the imminent Comprehensive Spending Review and it is inconceivable that the current range and quality of services can be continued without re-thinking delivery.

The one main conclusion of the earlier Cityforum ‘Closing the Gaps’ Round Table was that only a preventative approach, with much earlier and cleverly coordinated intervention, can reduce the problems and expense of the crisis response mode that predominates today.  Vulnerable young people and families – meeting their needs seeks to map ways of accomplishing this, in the face of financial stringency and the current focus on acute current problems. To view the agenda and confirmed speakers visit www.cityforum.co.uk.

People working in public sector institutions and agencies see opportunities to work together to develop their joint collaboration, as well as relationships with the third sector and business.  Better data is available than in the past and analytical capability is increasingly deployable. 

Whitehall and Westminster, with their traditional silos and eyes on the election cycle, are giving England new scope through devolution to re-imagine delivery to meet community needs and Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have wider powers than before.

This Round Table presents the most authoritative analysis of where we are, where we need to be and how we should act to get there.  Officials, police, criminal justice, health and education professionals, the third sector, academia and the business community are invited to spend a day working on improving the outcomes for young people and their families and on the opportunities now opening up for service providers, in a period of significant change.