Mr. Francis Chance:

I thank the Chairman for those comments which are very appropriate. In many ways we are speaking to the converted here. Nobody is going to argue that prevention is not a good thing in terms of children and families but it is important, in the context of financial decision-making, to stress that prevention is a cost-effective way to work. In our opening statement, we include a graph from Mr. James Heckman, the award-winning US economist, showing that the earlier one invests, the greater the return. Late investment is poor investment in the context of children and families. That is an important element of it. A key requirement now is a new national children's strategy that puts prevention at its centre, one that picks up from where the last strategy left off before the pandemic and also deals with the new and additional challenges that the pandemic has thrown at us. We know that childhood poverty and inequality have grown during the pandemic but if we work together we have an opportunity to address that.

We really appreciate the opportunity to address the committee and would be very happy to engage further with the committee or its individual members in the future. Please feel free to contact us. Finally, we owe it to our children to act now and to act decisively in relation to their development and well-being.