The Chancellor’s first budget – where childhood and children really need to matter

The forthcoming Budget, on 30 October, presents the Chancellor with an opportunity to invest, properly and sustainably, in the future of this country – our children and young people. This investment not only benefits individual children and families via increased earning potential, less reliance on, and costs to, the state and sustained progress on social injustices, it is sound economic policy.

The Prime Minister’s recent speech warned of a ‘painful’ Budget as a result of a £22 billion blackhole in public finances. This has led to much speculation about what we might expect on Budget day and there won’t be a DCS or Section 151 Officer in the country who isn’t holding their nerve. Although very little has been said about funding for local government and children’s services, the announcement of a Children’s Wellbeing Bill, the new government’s commitment to developing an ambitious child poverty strategy and the missions-based approach to working  gives me reason for optimism about how this government will approach many of the challenges impacting the lives and life chances of our children as well as the spending commitments the government might make.