The association estimates that for children's services, the funding gap will rise from £949m to £3.1bn over the next five years, accounting for 38 per cent of the total local government funding gap, second only to adult services in scale.
Last year, nine out of 10 councils overspent their children's social care budget to the tune of £800m, largely due to rising demand for child protection. In response, councils have increased their planned spending on children's services by £535m in 2019/20, a rise of 6.2 per cent on the £8.57bn budgeted for in 2018/19.
Funding pressures are also being seen in school budgets, which are stretched due to the rising child population, and higher numbers of children being diagnosed with special educational needs and disabilities - for which councils are facing a funding gap of £1.6bn by 2021, according to ISOS Partnership.
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