Councils still face ‘difficult decisions’ despite children’s services funding boost

Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove announced this week that £600m worth of extra funding will be made available to local authorities. This includes £500m through the government’s Social Care Grant to help councils meet demand for adult and children’s social care.

Gove hopes the extra money will “reduce pressures on other areas of children’s services such as home to school transport, where we recognise there has been a significant increase in pressures for special educational needs and disability services”.

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He said this week's social care funding announcement is in addition to £1bn extra already announced to “enable councils to continue to provide crucial social care services for their local communities, particularly for children”.

John Pearce, president of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, said the funding is “very welcome and recognition of the significant financial pressures on local government, particularly in children’s social care”.

However, it “does not negate the need for a sufficient long term funding settlement for children”, he said, adding, “councils will continue to face difficult decisions about vital services that our communities rely on without this”.

Tim Oliver, the chair of the County Councils Network (CCN) also welcomes the additional money but agrees more support is needed.

“Whilst this extra funding will undoubtedly help us protect valued frontline services, councils, of course, still face difficult decisions when setting their budgets for 2024/25,” he said.

"Service reductions will still be necessary for councils in some areas to balance their books, while the majority of councils will still have little choice but to propose maximum council tax rises.”

This week the CCN and the all-party parliamentary group for county councils wrote to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak calling for emergency funding to alleviate financial pressures on local government. This was signed by 44 Conservative Party MPs and seven former cabinet ministers.

Meanwhile, Jo Casebourne, chief executive of early intervention and children’s social care organisation Foundations, said the funding will “go some way towards tackling the current social care crisis”. 

“Now more than ever, we must invest in targeted support and resources that improve outcomes for children.  

“We know that keeping children within their family networks, where it is safe to do so, leads to better outcomes and reduces demand on the social care system – and that this is achievable with high-quality, carefully targeted support for families.”

Earlier this month a survey carried out by children’s charities NSPCC and Action for Children found that three in four councils need more help from the government to help them reunite children with their families to reduce their social care costs.