'I'm afraid a child will die': life at the sharp end of council cuts

Withdrawal of early intervention services in Somerset reflects mounting national emergency
In July last year, Frances and her two children walked out of their family home in south Somerset. Over the previous few years, her husband had been repeatedly violent towards her, and cruel and aggressive to her eldest daughter. The arrival of a new baby seemed to only make things worse. “He would lock my daughter out in the rain; he called our baby the ‘c’ word,” she says. “