Breaking the cycle by better spending

I’ve been thinking this week about how much money as a country we spend on our prisons, our adult mental health system and the cost of a child going in to care, a much larger amount than if we chose to spend more money on preventative measures. If we could invest more in identifying, supporting and preventing these situations occurring in the first place, we would spend far less in the long run. This would be beneficial to individuals, families and society as whole. Think of the child who is struggling in school today because of a challenging home environment. If we don’t address this now the same child could be an adult in our prison system, an adult with mental health problems, an adult whose children are taken into care or simply another adult with a child who is struggling in school a generation on. Is it really that simple….or am I missing something?