- Major new project from the Centre for Young Lives think-tank, funded by The JABBS Foundation for Women and Girls, will harness open data to understand the scale and nature of risks facing children, young people and vulnerable women and girls, and to drive earlier support before crisis hits.
- New ‘Vulnerability Index’ will become the go-to national dataset for policymakers, public bodies, and charities seeking to improve support and outcomes for children and young people.
The Centre for Young Lives, the independent think-tank founded two years ago by former Children’s Commissioner for England, Baroness Anne Longfield, has announced the development of a reimagined Vulnerability Index, a major new project that will harness open data to understand the scale and nature of risks facing children and young people to drive earlier interventions.
The Index will underpin the creation of a new flagship research centre, the Early Intervention Evidence, Policy and Impact Centre (EI-EPIC). The centre will bring together cutting-edge data analysis, policy research, modelling, and direct advocacy work to drive change across Whitehall, Westminster, and local government.
The project is funded by The JABBS Foundation for Women and Girls and the first phase of work will prioritise women and girls, who can be particularly vulnerable to social challenges such as poverty, ill health, lack of opportunity, abuse and exploitation.
Building on the original Vulnerability Index produced by the Children’s Commissioner’s Office between 2015 and 2019, the new Index will again bring together multiple datasets to quantify the number of vulnerable children in England, including those who may be “invisible” to services and receiving no formal support.
By providing a comprehensive, systemwide view of childhood and adolescent vulnerability in England, the Centre will support stronger national and local decision making. The Index will initially be built using national data before expanding to produce local area data profiles, helping leaders understand variations in need and track changing patterns over time.
The Centre aims for the Vulnerability Index to become the go-to national dataset for policymakers, public bodies, and charities seeking to improve outcomes for children and young people. An annual State of the Nation report will be published, building on the first edition released in 2025, offering a robust, data led assessment of childhood vulnerability in England - the only evidence base of its kind.
The Covid-19 pandemic exposed deep inequalities in children’s lives. Despite recent Government initiatives including efforts to reduce child poverty, create a more inclusive school system, reduce young people’s risk of involvement in the criminal justice system, invest in family hubs, and improve the children’s social care system, the number of children living in vulnerable circumstances remains high, with many indicators now more severe than before the pandemic.
In the years since lockdown, political attention has also increasingly moved away from vulnerable children, even as the consequences for health, wellbeing, life chances, community cohesion, public services, and long-term economic growth continue to mount.
There is extensive evidence showing that early, holistic, and joined-up support for families with additional needs delivers significant social and economic benefits. Yet systemwide implementation has not kept pace with the evidence. Between 2010/11 and 2022/23, early intervention spending fell by 44%, while spending on acute, late intervention rose by 57%. Research by the Children’s Commissioner’s Office in 2019 showed that almost half of all local authority spending on children went to intensive support for the 4% with the highest needs, while only 7% was spent on early intervention.
A central ambition of EI-EPIC is to make the case to the Treasury for a fundamental shift in how children’s policy and funding are approached. This means moving away from crisis-driven spending and towards early, needs-led, preventative support that reduces vulnerabilities and enables children to thrive throughout their childhood – so that the state does not have to step in later.
An important strand of this work will include influencing decision makers to incorporate Women’s Centres within the thinking around early intervention, including Young Futures, Family Hubs nationally and regionally.
The Centre for Young Lives work will include working with local authorities and community providers to develop an integrated model of Young Futures and Family Hubs with Women’s Centres at their core and learning events with system and practice leaders of Hubs to raise awareness of Women’s Centres and share learning on best practice.
Haroon Chowdry, CEO of the Centre for Young Lives, said:
“The number of children with additional needs or living in vulnerable circumstances remains far too high, and in many cases these needs have intensified since the pandemic.
“A failure to identify needs and provide early support continues to create challenges affecting not only individual children, but wider society. Not only is it wrong, but it is also unaffordable.
“An evidence-based policy programme is urgently needed to drive the reform of public services to meet the needs of all children and young people, reduce the enormous costs of crisis responses to the taxpayer, and contribute to economic growth.
“We are delighted to be partnering with The JABBS Foundation for Women and Girls to deliver a step-change in ambition for children and young people, particularly those growing up in adversity and disadvantage.
“We share JABBS’ commitment to improving support for women, girls, and families, and are prioritising this focus during EI-EPIC’s first phase of work.”
Dr Tom McNeil, CEO of The JABBS Foundation for Women and Girls, said:
“As part of our wider programme of early intervention work, our new partnership with Centre for Young Lives is designed to help influence policy change for the benefit of women, girls, and children and families more widely, and support greater recognition of the role of Women’s Centres in the early intervention service ecosystem.
“We cannot tackle the challenges faced by women and girls in isolation, and this project will support greater integration and awareness across national policy and services.”
ENDS
For further information contact: Jo Green/ jo.green@centreforyounglives.org (CFYL Director of Comms) or Lizzie Humphreys lizzie.humphreys@jabbswomenandgirls.org.uk (Advocacy and Communications Manager, The JABBS Foundation for Women and Girls)
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