Early intervention grant raises questions over fairness and bias

9 January 2012 5 mins read Neil Puffett Early Years Children's Services Early help Social Care Youth Work

Against a backdrop of continued austerity, the announcement last month that the early intervention grant is set to rise by six per cent from April appeared to offer some hope that services tackling deep-seated issues among the most disadvantaged children and families would be boosted.

But closer analysis of the local government finance settlement by CYP Now reveals this will not be the case for many local authorities because of stark differences in the way the grant has been divvied up across England.

Furthermore, the promised £291m funding for 2012/13 to prepare for the expansion of free childcare for disadvantaged two-year-olds is included in the total early intervention grant package for the coming year. So despite the apparent six per cent overall rise – from £2.232bn in 2011/12 to £2.365bn in 2012/13 – the reality is a like-for-like cut of nearly £158m.

Coupled with an overall reduction in the formula grant – the main grant councils receive from Whitehall – from £52.1bn to £50.4bn, the coming financial year promises to throw up huge challenges for local government.

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