One in four councils plan children's services cuts

The Local Government Information Unit (LGiU) annual State of Local Government Finance Survey of council leaders found that children's services and education is the top immediate financial pressure they face amid ongoing budget cuts and financial uncertainty.

Of those leaders surveyed by the think-tank, 24 per cent said they are looking to reduce activity in children's care services due to budget constraints.

The same proportion are planning youth centre cuts, with 16 per cent saying special education and disability support will be cut.

Supporting more families with complex needs is the top reason cited for children's services becoming a growing financial pressure. This is mentioned by 59 per cent of those surveyed.

More than half (57 per cent) say increasing numbers of children being taken into care was a key driver, while 52 per cent mentioned the pressure of supporting children with special educational needs and disabilities.

Other factors include the increasing cost of residential care (cited by 49 per cent of councils), social worker recruitment (43 per cent), increasing numbers of child safety referrals (38 per cent) and lack of foster carers and adoptive parents (35 per cent).

• Analysis: Deprivation is key factor affecting spending on children's services
• Analysis: Frontline funds - Social workers to get budgets to support families
• Roundtable debate: The future of early intervention
  
  

Children's services budgets are also having to cope with emerging challenges, particularly so-called "county lines" operations, where gangs exploit young people in drug distribution networks.

This is mentioned as a top-three pressure on children's services by one in 20 councils, all of which are located in the south-east, London and the Midlands.

Supporting unaccompanied child asylum seekers is identified as a major financial pressure by one in seven councils, all of which were in the south east, Midlands, London and Yorkshire.

This is the second year running that children's services and education has been listed as the greatest immediate pressure council's face. Adult social care was the top concern in 2017 and 2016.

The survey found that more than half of councils (53 per cent) are now eating into their reserves and almost all (97 per cent) are planning a hike in council tax.

Meanwhile, 81 per cent are investing in commercial developments to raise revenue. Six out of 10 council leaders believe that in the future core services will become reliant on income from such investments.

"With more cuts ahead, local councils have no option but to take drastic measures to make ends meet," said LGiU chief executive Jonathan Carr-West.

"In the future care for the elderly and vulnerable children could be funded from shopping centre investments and car parks, which carries significant risk if the economy tanks.

"Now more than ever do we need a thriving, resilient local government sector to weather the storm of national uncertainty, but years of chronic under-funding has left local government on life support."

Earlier this month a House of Commons public accounts committee inquiry heard from two directors of children's services about the financial pressures they face.

Increasing costs and bidding wars around residential child care was a key issue raised by Northumberland County Council's executive director of children's services Cath McEvoy-Corr and Oxfordshire County Council's director of children's services Lucy Butler.