PSYCHOLOGISTS and social workers are joining forces to fight the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on the well-being and future of young people.

In a motion asking for support for their campaign from the General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU) AGM this weekend, the Social Workers Union (SWU) and the Association of Educational Psychologists (AEP) will call for pressure on the government to act.

The two groups will highlight that 75 per cent of social workers strongly agreed that more children will come into care due to a cost-of-living crisis.

Recent analysis of official data by the Warm This Winter campaign has highlighted that for 21 per cent of families with young children under six, the cost-of-living crisis was so bad last winter that they lived in a cold and damp home.

Educational psychologists will point out that living in cold conditions and poverty saps the mental capacity to deal with complex tasks, including studying for numeracy.

Research by the Centre for Mental Health has shown that children living in the poorest 20 per cent of households are more than four times as likely to experience severe mental health problems as children from the wealthiest 20 per cent.

AEP general secretary Dr Cath Lowther said: “Austerity has stripped away many of the conditions that children and young people need to thrive.

“Poverty has become entrenched and protective services have been decimated.

“Current conditions significantly jeopardise a future society of happy, well-educated, productive and successful adults.”

Educational psychologists in the Midlands have highlighted situations where children are living in substandard home conditions, have no toys to play with and go to school without having eaten.

SWU assistant general secretary Calum Gallacher said: “Poverty levels are now unacceptable and enforces significant disadvantages on our future generations.

“We are hearing from front-line social workers that there are increased self-referrals from families, including where there is one working parent, for support to access foodbanks and local authority financial contributions towards electricity.

“Austerity is a humanitarian crisis robbing communities of humane and equitable treatment and it is counterproductive to greater efficacy of public spending.

“Basic human needs should not be capitalised on as commodities. We need government insight and action to tackle profiteering on poverty.”

Mr Gallacher called for “adequate government intervention so as to provide children with equal opportunities to grow, learn and thrive.”