ABSTRACT
This chapter brings together the evidence showing the impact of poverty and social exclusion on families and in particular how austerity has changed the conditions in which exclusion of families can be tackled. Some of the current concerns over the unevenness of assessments of children in need arise in part because of the inability to understand how aspects of poverty and exclusion impact on parent's capacity for child rearing. The evidence on child outcomes from actual early intervention programmes is mixed: children in high-quality early years settings do show outcomes that last well into their teenage years. The standard claim from government that worklessness is the major cause of poverty is incorrect in relation to children. The consequences for children living in poverty are immense. Families which sustain economic distress often cope also with social consequences isolation, overcrowded households, children's difficult behaviour, drug abuse and psychiatric disorders. The Framework for assessing children in need loosely adopts the ecological framework.
