How social capital can improve outcomes for children in doubly disadvantaged neighbourhoods

Dan Crowe, director of the national network for neighbourhood improvement (3ni), explores the role social capital can play in securing better outcomes for children and young people growing up in England’s doubly disadvantaged neighbourhoods.

Where we live and who we live with are perhaps the most important predictors of how our lives will unfold.

Evidence shows that the neighbourhoods we are born, brought up and reside in have a major impact on outcomes as varied as access to education, health, and employment opportunities.

For children and young people, the impact is stark. We know from our research at Local Trust and 3ni that children living in doubly disadvantaged areas, with the highest levels of community need and lowest levels of of social infrastructure in the country, have worse outcomes than equally deprived but better connected and resourced neighbourhoods.

Protective networks formed by social capital

Children in care are an especially vulnerable group for whom social infrastructure is particularly important, as the building block of social capital. Social infrastructure is the:

• places and facilities for people to meet, which underpin an area’s civic life
• groups and networks that bring people together
• connectivity to services and opportunities

The studies presented in Local Trust and 3ni’s report with Demos, Social Capital 2025: A protective shield for children, families and communities, show that stocks of social capital can make a real difference to the numbers of children requiring crisis intervention from social services or criminal justice.

The paper explains that, among other factors, the presence of non-profit organisations in communities correlates with better childcare outcomes and enhanced child protection, and that social capital forms protective networks that help people access resources and support.

A new approach to community wealth building

The origins of the paper lie in the work that 3ni is doing as an expert advisor and strategic partner to Stoke-on-Trent City Council and its partners.  

Together, we are working to develop a new long-term approach to stimulating neighbourhood regeneration and building social capital and community capacity, particularly in areas dealing with entrenched, multi-generational challenges.

The goal is a new approach to community wealth building that the council is pioneering from the bottom up, targeted at the hyper–local level with a long-term time horizon.”

This work forms part of the evidence base for the council’s ambitious objectives of investing in prevention, strengthening community organisations to tackle spatial inequalities, and devolving power to communities and neighbourhoods.  

The goal is a new approach to community wealth building that the council is pioneering from the bottom up, targeted at the hyper–local level with a long-term time horizon.  

The approach is focused first on strengthening those communities that have seen their social infrastructure depleted and local community institutions hollowed out.

Over recent years, these neighbourhoods have seen a record growth in numbers of looked–after–children. While the average cost to the local authority of a child’s residential placement is £281,000 a year, the cost to a child of being removed from their family is incalculable.  

This is why a new way of working is needed, combining a dedicated, multi-agency strategy to support local families to prevent problems escalating, with a long-term approach to restore social norms and rebuild the impactful local associational activity and institutions that underpin community wealth, health and wellbeing. 

Through the work of 3ni we hope to share the learnings from Stoke-on-Trent, and other local authorities and public sector partners we are working with, that are grappling with seemingly intractable problems and the fallout and impact of the effects of spatial inequalities. The evidence shows that investing in strengthening social capital must be part of the solution.

If you work in local government or have an interest in neighbourhood improvement, sign up to 3ni to get involved.

Access all the papers in the Social Capital 2025 series as they are released, as well as blogs and definitions for more information.