Children’s centres are crammed partly because other parts of the state are crumbling. Waiting lists to be evaluated for speech and language problems and autism have swelled, as have all NHS waiting lists
. So no health visitor came to check on him and she was unable to take him to play groups, where she might have noticed the profound differences between him and other children. “Because of covid, we didn’t know what’s normal and what is not,” she says. Now aged three, her son is waiting to be assessed for autism. In the meantime, she brings him to a children’s centre in Devon, where he plays with trained staff in a quiet environment.
In the year to March 31st, 3,229 children were referred to children’s centres in the county, often by doctors and health visitors but sometimes by their parents. That is 19% more than in 2019-20, the year that ended just as covid struck. It is also a hefty share of all young children: Devon has about 35,000 under-fives. Staff in the centres say they are seeing not only more children but more needy ones. “It’s not letting up,” says Jess Foy, who runs a children’s centre in Barnstaple.
It also seems likely that young children truly have more problems than they used to. Covid lockdowns deprived them of—babies hear language even on trips to the supermarket. Parents were less likely to notice their children’s problems, and had new ways to explain them away. When a toddler who grew up in lockdown reacts to strangers by screaming, is something really wrong with him, or has he simply grown fearful? By the time parents seek help, their children’s problems are serious.
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