Child protection 'will struggle to cope' with Spending Review cuts

Analysis by the LGA estimates that government policies to be implemented over the next five years are already set to cost councils £6.3bn by 2020.

In addition to £3.6bn of "business as usual" pressures to maintain services at their current level based on demand-led and inflation pressures on local government services, this will leave councils £10bn worse off by 2020.

The LGA’s submission to the Treasury ahead of the November Spending Review said a range of services, including child protection, will not be able to cope if further cuts are handed down.

“Leaving councils to pick up the bill for new national policies while being handed further spending reductions cannot be an option,” LGA chair Gary Porter said.

"Enormous pressure will be heaped on already stretched local services if the government fails to fully assess the impact of these unfunded cost burdens when making its spending decisions for the next five years.

“Vital services, such as caring for the elderly, protecting children, collecting bins, filling potholes and maintaining our parks and green spaces, will simply struggle to continue at current levels.”

The LGA submission states that councils have faced sharply increased demand for children’s social care since the Peter Connolly case in November 2008, resulting in a 22 per cent rise in referrals, a 65 per cent rise in children subject to a child protection plan and a 16 per cent increase in the number of children in care.

“Demand pressures are likely to increase,” the report states.

“Some areas have already seen increased demand for referrals as a result of high-profile child sexual exploitation cases including findings from the Jay report.

“In addition, the number of pupils with special educational needs related to learning disability is expected to rise by 26 per cent from 2014 to 2023, with growth accelerating towards the end of the decade.”

The LGA is calling for greater freedoms for councils on the way they spend money.

Only radical reform of the way public money is spent and widespread devolution of transport, housing, skills and health and social care across England in the Spending Review can protect the services which bind our communities together and protect our most vulnerable," Porter said.