Spending Review: Sector bodies set out key asks
Fiona Simpson
Wednesday, November 25, 2020
Chancellor Rishi Sunak is today set to announce a one-year spending review focussed solely on helping the UK to recover from Covid-19.
As local authorities face huge deficits, charities are forced to cut staff and youth work services “struggle to stay open”, organisations across the sector each have their own priorities for how next year’s budget should be spent.
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Related news: Urgent call for Youth Investment Fund 'to stop sector collapse'
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Funding Focus - Covid recovery funding
Many have branded the reduction of the spending review from three years to one year a “sticking plaster” which may lead to greater cuts in the long run.
CYP Now sets out five proposals from key sector organisations for where funding should be directed:
Association of Directors of Children’s Services
The Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) says in its submission to the Treasury: “ADCS estimates that children’s services need a significant investment of between £4.1 billion to £4.5 billion for each year of the Comprehensive Spending Review. Funding for innovation and research must be in addition to this.”
It lists four key priorities for investment over the period of the Spending Review while also identifying a number of national policy reforms “which if implemented, would unlock significant savings which could be reinvested”.
These are:
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Prevention and early intervention
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Special educational needs and disabilities
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Children’s social care
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Early years and further education
It also calls for comprehensive SEND reform; allocation of capital funding to allow local authorities to re-enter or further develop their in-house children’s home offer; a review of the legislative framework underpinning home-to-school transport and the funding available for the National Citizenship Service should be redirected to authorities to provide sustainable, long-term youth services.
Local Government Association
The Local Government Association (LGA) is urging the chancellor to provide local government with an extra £8.7 billion in the Spending Review so councils can not only plug this gap but meet demand pressures and improve services next year.
Councillor James Jamieson, LGA chairman, said: “This year has been incredibly hard for our nation. This virus has not only tragically claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people but the true impact of the pandemic on wider health and mental wellbeing has yet to become clear. It has devastated our economy and exacerbated long-standing inequalities.
“Positive news about Covid-19 vaccines has provided a sense of renewed optimism about the future and the prospect of our normal way of life returning next year.
“As the focus shifts towards how we build back better, it would be disastrous if councils are forced to find further major savings to already stretched budgets next year and are choked off from being able to act locally to restore local economies and rebuild communities as a result.
"Now is not the time for the services our communities will turn to for help to have to be drastically scaled back or lost altogether.”
County Councils Network
The County Councils Network (CNN) is calling on the government to renew its flagship Troubled Families programme next year, which is worth £165m to help councils address these emerging family issues as a result of the pandemic.
The network is also calling on the government to widen the scope of the programme with an increased pot so it can better embrace mental health support to prevent issues spiralling out of control and burdening the health service.
This must be alongside targeted investment in children’s services next year, which was seeing demand outstrip funding even before the pandemic struck.
Early Years Alliance
The Early Years Alliance (EYA) is calling on the government to commit to a £240 million Early Years Sufficiency Fund targeted at childcare providers at risk of closure to ensure that there are enough childcare and early education places to meet the needs of children and families following the pandemic.
Neil Leitch, chief executive of the EYA, said: “We are now a critical moment for the early years sector. With demand for places still significantly below what would typically be expected, and no sign of things returning to normal any time soon, many nurseries, pre-schools and childminders are reaching the point of no return.
“There is absolutely no excuse for the government’s continued indifference towards the early years sector. It claims that children’s access to education during the pandemic is a top priority, and yet it is apparently perfectly happy to see thousands of early education providers fall by the wayside. It argues that safeguarding the economy is critical to the country’s recovery, but chooses to ignore the fact that there can be no recovery without a functioning early years sector providing the quality care that parents and families need.”
Centrepoint
Centrepoint has called on the government to invest £1bn in homelessness services, with money ring-fenced specifically to support young people, and make the temporary Universal Credit increase for vulnerable under-25s permanent.
Seyi Obakin, chief executive of Centrepoint, added: “The government’s response to the financial challenges of the pandemic has shown that tackling rough sleeping and unemployment is possible if ministers choose to make those areas a priority.
“Since the financial crash of 2008, money for homelessness services has been repeatedly chipped away. Covid-19 has forced us all to look again at the sort of country we want to live in and the spending review provides an opportunity to start realising a vision of zero youth homelessness.
“During the pandemic we saw the government and local councils mobilise to get rough sleepers off the street. The Spending Review is an opportunity to go further and carry that momentum into ending youth homelessness.”