In the short term, money has to be saved. Children's services have already had to respond to significant in-year reductions to both revenue and capital grants. Now it is the frontloading of cuts to local authority budgets that present children's services leaders with an even bigger problem.
Marion Davis, president of the Association of Director's of Children's Services, was right when she described the local government finance settlement as not leaving councils with much room to manoeuvre in making smart, rather than quick, savings.
The smartest of savings we can make have to be to invest more in early intervention with fewer children and young people needing to be supported by expensive services later on.
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