Budget: Five key priorities to be addressed

Rishi Sunak will announce his first Budget as Chancellor in a speech at 12.30pm.

Here are five key priorities that need to be addressed across children’s social care, early years and education, according to sector leaders:

Youth services

According to recent analysis of government figures by charity YMCA, youth services have suffered a £1bn spending cut in just eight years.

A new report by the all-party parliamentary group on knife and violent crime says Sunak must commit £1.57bn to children and youth services to ensure “sustainable long-term youth work” can effectively tackle violent crime.

• Call for action to arrest decline in number of children’s centres

• Help families in poverty trap

Children’s social care

Local services in England could face a £6.5bn funding gap by 2025, with children and adults social care worst affected, according to the Local Government Association (LGA).

Children's social care services currently face a funding gap of £805,388, LGA figures show. It is predicted this gap could rise to £1.5m by 2025.

Local authorities have called on the government to use the Budget to provide “sustainable, long-term funding settlement for councils which means they can improve services and not just keep them going”.

Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)

Research by the Public Accounts Committee shows that school SEND budgets suffered a 2.6 per cent reduction in funding for each pupil with high needs between 2013/14 and 2017/18.

This is coupled with a 32.4 per cent increase in local authority spending on independent special schools between 2013/14 and 2017/18, figures show.

However, research by the National Audit Office found that government funding has not been keeping pace with this increase.

Campaigners have called for increased funding for local authority SEND budgets and clarity on approved outcomes of SEND intervention.

Childcare workforce

Analysis of childcare costs by Coram Family and Childcare group finds that the average cost of a nursery place for 25 hours per week for a child under the age of two is £6,800 a year (£131.61 a week).

Further studies have shown that low pay and high stress has led to a drop in workforce numbers in the childcare sector.

Childcare leaders have called on Sunak “to commit to ensuring that 'free childcare' schemes are adequately funded, both now and in the future. Neither providers nor parents should have to pay for a pledge that the government chose to make.”

They have also made repeated calls for “a well-qualified and properly remunerated workforce”.

Child poverty

Some 4.1m children live in poverty in the UK – an increase of 500,000 between 2011/12 and 2016/17 – figures from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health show.

A recent Department for Education report states that poverty is a key factor in a third of serious case reviews.

Children’s charities have called on Sunak to reverse cuts to local authority budgets and invest heavily in “practical action” to combat child poverty.