Finance deal must address social care demand, say council chiefs

The Local Government Association (LGA) says providing more funding for children's social care must be prioritised in the local government finance settlement for 2018/19, which is due to be announced shortly, to reflect rising demand on services.

The LGA's call for action comes as it publishes new analysis that shows more than 500 child protection investigations were on average begun every day last year by councils.

According to the figures, more than 185,000 section 47 enquiries were initiated during the year ending 31 March 2017. In comparison, in the year to 31b March 2007, just 73,000 enquiries were initiated.

Figures published in August showed that children's services spent £600m more in 2015/16 than was budgeted. The LGA has warned that if current spending and demand levels continue, the funding gap in children's services will be £2bn by 2020.

Describing the current situation as a "tipping point", the LGA said a failure to close the funding gap meant many children and families across the country who relied on children's services would be at risk.

Councillor Richard Watts, chair of the LGA's children and young people board, said urgent action is needed because last month's Budget provided no additional funding for children's services.

"The government has been warned repeatedly that ongoing funding cuts have left councils struggling to provide the support that vulnerable children and families need," he said.

Watts said that the rise in demand for child protection services has been at the expense of investment in early help.

"This has to be a wake-up call to government that unless there is an injection of funding to support crucial early intervention services, many more vulnerable children and families will need formal support from council child protection services in the years to come," he added.

Eleanor Briggs, head of policy and research at Action for Children, said reductions in funding had forced councils to scale back early help services.

"It's no surprise therefore that more children, young people and families are being referred to social services; even then many of them are not getting the help they need," she said.

Briggs said a Freedom of Information request carried out by the charity had revealed up to 140,000 of the most vulnerable children in England were not receiving help because their needs fell short of the criteria for support.

"The status quo simply cannot continue - the government must address the funding gap for children's services if we're going to help families before they reach crisis point," she said.

The finance settlement is consulted on before being finalised early next year.