Poor areas worst affected by children's services cuts
Joe Lepper
Wednesday, February 7, 2018
Council areas with the highest levels of deprivation are bearing the brunt of children's services funding cuts, research has found.
Analysis of spending on children and young people's services across England over a five-year period found that the least affluent areas have been disproportionately affected by funding cuts.
The most deprived 20 per cent of councils saw their spending per child cut by a quarter (27 per cent) between 2010 and 2015, while the least deprived 20 per cent of areas experienced cuts of only four per cent.
Overall between 2010 and 2015 there was a 16 per cent cut in spending per child, the research by the University of Sheffield and University of Huddersfield found.
Researchers said there was an 11.7 per cent cut in total central government grants to councils by the coalition government in 2010 alone.
"These cuts did not fall evenly on all services or across all parts of the country, with more deprived local authorities that rely on higher spending to meet greater or more complex needs experiencing the largest cuts," states the researchers' report.
The research also found that early intervention services, including family support and children's centres, have seen the biggest cut in spending, while expenditure on child protection and safeguarding has either remained stable or increased.
"This evidence reflects at an institutional level, a fiscal policy shift away from family support and towards a focus on child protection and permanent alternative placements, including adoption," states the researchers' report.
Research co-authors professor Paul Bywaters of the University of Huddersfield's Centre for Applied Childhood, Youth and Family Research, and the University of Sheffield's Calum Webb are presenting their findings to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Children today.
"The combination of cuts plus rising demand from families is having a major impact on services, so overall there has been a cut in spend-per-child since 2010 of 16 per cent and the most deprived local authorities have taken a larger hit," said Professor Bywaters.
"So the most deprived 20 per cent of authorities have cut their spending on children's services by a quarter, whereas the least deprived 20 per cent have cut only by four or five per cent".
The Department for Education has been contacted for comment.