The scale of the problem
The Children's Act 2004 pledged for every child emotionally, physically and sexually abused or neglected, help and a place on the child protection register. That law is systematically broken. Official statistics show that some 550,000 children a year are referred to child protection services. But approximately only 35,100 are allocated a social worker and have a care plan drawn up. Those are the ones who have come to the attention of the authorities. The truth is that 1.5 million children are being abused and neglected in Britain every year (New Economic Foundation and Action for Children 2009).
Beyond this, the child protection register is equally misleading. As has been evidenced by recent high profile cases, a place on the register doesn’t necessarily guarantee the level of care children need. Additionally, in order to keep costs and numbers down nearly the same numbers of children as are registered are de-registered within the year. In poor areas this means that there is pressure on workers to get the child off the child-protection register as quickly as possible irrespective of whether there are sound clinical reasons for doing so.
Our Aim 
No child should be left to survive childhood alone. Our aim is to share our work so that similar, Kids Company style centres can be set up across the country. We are developing a best practice model by pulling together our knowledge gained at street level since 1996, and combining it with academic research looking at the impact of trauma and neglect on children, to create a best practice model for successfully working with vulnerable and hard to reach children and young people. If this model is adopted across the country we believe it is possible to cover the shortfall in child protection in the UK.
Our Services
Our services are delivered across two street level drop-in centres (The Tree House, and The Arches II), a therapy centre (The Heart Yard), over 16s education unit (The Urban Academy), and in 38 schools in deprived areas of London.
Kids Company provides a substitute family environment where each individual is given a comprehensive package of care. Our staff team includes Keyworkers, social workers, youth offending workers, teachers, employment advisors, psychologists, psychotherapists, alternative health therapists, arts and sports facilitators, nurses, a psychiatrist and access to GPs. Our centres offer after school sports, art, music and drama clubs, as well as arranging trips in the evenings and during holidays.
Our therapy centre is called the Heart Yard. Some of our most vulnerable children and young people receive intensive emotional and psychological support at this centre. We uniquely offer specialised psychiatric care, child and adolescent psychotherapy, as well as dance and movement, play and arts therapies. We also provide complementary health treatments such as acupuncture, hand and facial reflexology, aromatherapy, massage, Reiki and yoga.
Schools & Education
We work in 38 schools in some of London’s most depleted communities. Psychotherapists, social workers, arts facilitators, in-class support workers and volunteers provide a programme of one-to-one and group therapy, drop-in counselling, lunchtime and after school clubs, arts workshops and day trips. They support children with emotional and behavioural issues and help prevent many being excluded from or dropping out of school.
Our Urban Academy offers educational support to vulnerable young adults aged between 16 and 23, and helps them to move on successfully into further education, training or employment. The young people are typically too agitated and disruptive to sit in a conventional classroom due to complex emotional and behavioural problems.
As a result of this support, in 2009 we had 150 young people studying at colleges or universities, including Oxford, Cambridge, UCL and Imperial.
Crisis Drop-In Centres & Emotional Wellbeing
Many of the young people who come to our drop-in centres are dealing with extremely complex challenges – some have been drug couriers, members of gangs or involved in prostitution.
Over 95% of the children we support self-refer or are referred by their peers. A sample of the case histories of young people arriving at one of our street level centres showed that they had experienced the following problems:
- 83% - sustained complex trauma during childhood
- 87% - emotional difficulties and mental health problems
- 39% - young carers struggling to cope
- 84% - experienced homelessness
Arts, Sports & Activities
We have a hugely successful arts programme encompassing visual arts, new media, fashion, music, drama and dance. Children who have been subjected to abuse and neglect often find it hard to communicate their feelings through words. The arts provide a vital outlet for traumatic memories, and a means of processing painful experiences. Work created by our children and young people has been exhibited at Tate Modern, The Saatchi Gallery, The Haunch of Venison, The Serpentine, The Guardian, HM Treasury and we have produced and performed plays at the National Theatre Studio.
Many of our young people struggle with a build up of physical tension and aggression as a result of childhood trauma. Our sports and activities programme enables disturbed children to channel their energy through constructive means and gives young people the opportunity to have new and positive experiences as well as build confidence and resilience. We run over 35 after school actives a week and a summer Escapes programme during the holidays.
Successful Outcomes
Our relationship with an individual child begins by assessing their basic needs, such as food and housing, and putting in place the necessary support. We then work with each child to fully understand their emotional needs and help them manage the impact of trauma and neglect. Our holistic approach continues to deliver success. In terms of sustainable impact, a study by The University of London in 2008 identified a number of successful outcomes as a result of our work:
- 86% were engaged in work experience
- 91% were reintegrated into education
- 89% improved their anger management
- 90% reduced their involvement in criminal activity
- 94% reduced their level of substance misuse
Working with our supporters
At Kids Company we build relations way beyond financial giving alone. We run an active volunteering and mentoring programme and also encourage people to come and see what we do at street level. We want our supporters and donors to get involved, either in a hands-on capacity, actively working with our children and young people, or through skills exchanges.
Our corporate volunteers get involved in a broad range of projects including: fun days, school trips, sports days, art workshops, drama workshops, cookery sessions, school decoration, and home makeovers.
For people wishing to be involved on a more regular basis, we run a mentoring programme. Our mentors work with children and young people to help them achieve goals, build confidence and self-esteem, experience new things or to just have fun.
Our funding gap
The perilous state of child protection combined with the desperate reality of the depleted London communities we support, creates a growing need for our services. Over 96% of the children and young people using Kids Company’s services self-refer which creates a unique funding challenge. Services that are not commissioned are not financially supported by local authorities.
This year it will cost just over £1m a month to provide the services and support for 14,000 children and young people. We receive just over a third from government and have to raise the remaining £700,000 a month from individuals, companies, Trusts & Foundations and via events. If you can help in any way, please see our website for details.
