Frightening statistic: more than two million children in England are growing up in families where there are serious risks. So says the Children’s Commissioner, Anne Longfield. Her report states the dangers include domestic violence and living with parents who are alcoholics or have substance abuse problems. One study into childhood vulnerability estimates that 2.1 million of England’s 11.8 million children, nearly one in six, are living in families with risks so serious that they need some level of help. Of those children there are 890,000 with parents suffering serious mental health problems and 825,000 living in homes with domestic violence, while 100,000 children were found to be living in a family with the “toxic trio” – mental health problems, domestic violence and alcohol or substance abuse.
Ms Longfield said: “Over a million of the most vulnerable children in England cannot meet their own ambitions because they are being let down by a system that doesn’t recognise or support them, a system that too often leaves them and their families to fend for themselves until crisis point is reached.”
However, one story of a child overcoming such issues is of a boy named Jack. Jack was 13 when he first met his parents’ drug worker. He is now 18 but throughout his childhood he was his mum’s carer, he stated that he would come straight home after primary school so he could make sure she didn’t fall over and hit her head while she was drunk. The impact of Jack’s parent’s lifestyle affected his whole family. His sister was taken into care and his brother was in and out of jail for stealing from people on their estate, this made the family a target. Jack felt the social workers who would come to the house failed to have a grasp of what was happening.
Jack had this to say: “They saw it from the outside in not the inside out,” adding “I felt like saying, you don’t understand because you’re not living the life I’m in. They’d say, I’ll pick you up and we’ll go to Costa to have a chat, and I’d be like but after that I’m still going home to my mum who’s doing drugs and feeling suicidal.”
When his mum died in 2014, Jack’s dad struggled to cope consequently leading to jack moving in with his uncle. When Jack was 14 his uncle wanted to move to Manchester so he made the choice to go into care. He had a case worker from Action for Children, who would come into his home and who he felt comfortable to open up to. He is now studying sport at college and has secured a position to play at a semi-professional level for Bolton Wanderers next season.
“I’ve been with my foster family now for nearly four years. It’s coming along great. I started to feel part of a normal family,” Jack says. “I was given a lot more freedom and a lot more time to express myself. After about four months of being in care, I got out of the behaviour unit.” adding “A couple of years ago I was always in the present or the past. I’m looking forward to the future now. I want to be a coach or a footballer. That’s the dream.”
