DfE data shows funding shift from universal to targeted services

Councils have shifted their funding priorities with more money being pumped into support for struggling families, child protection and looked-after children at the expense of universal early years and youth services, CYP Now analysis of projected local authority spending this year reveals.

The analysis of section 251 returns to the Department for Education shows that overall spending on children's services is predicted to fall in 2013/14 to £8.35bn, from £8.58bn in 2011/12 - a drop of 2.73 per cent.

But this overall funding picture masks significant variation in service areas.

The biggest decrease comes in the Sure Start and early years funding category, which is down nearly 15 per cent to £1.09bn.

Meanwhile, spending on youth justice will fall nearly five per cent to £319m, and funding on services for young people is down 2.1 per cent to £712m.

The biggest increase will be on family support services, which is set to rise 13.8 per cent from £825m to £938m.

Likewise, spending on safeguarding services will rise by 2.39 per cent from £1.89bn to £1.93bn, and spending on looked-after children will rise two per cent from £3.19bn to £3.26bn (see graphic).

Carey Oppenheim, chief executive of the Early Intervention Foundation (EIF), says local authorities are "focusing on what they absolutely have to do", and are prioritising funding to a greater degree on their statutory responsibilities.

"However, there is still a very strong commitment and drive to try to make sure money is spent on early intervention despite that," she says.

"Ultimately, over the medium to long term, it is the only way to get better outcomes for children and families and save money."

Oppenheim says the fact that not all early intervention spending is identifiable in the figures makes it difficult to get a clear, precise picture of what is going on.

She says the EIF is currently working with local authorities and other agencies, such as health and police, to devise a reporting system to record spending on early intervention.

Andrew Webb, president of the Association of Directors of Children's Services, says local authorities have cut back so much on early intervention services that spending on crisis-point interventions will come under greater pressure in light of year-on-year increases in child protection referrals, and numbers of children in care.

"Councils need to safeguard child protection spending, but their ability to continue to shield spending on those services, when they have taken so much out of everywhere else, comes under real pressure," he says.

"If you cut preventative services any further, we will see even bigger pressures on those reactive services."

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Children's centres

In terms of specific service areas, the local government spending figures show that individual children's centre funding is down 10 per cent across England (from £782m to £704m), with funding for services delivered through children's centres down 35.7 per cent (from £172m to £111m).

According to Labour Party figures released earlier this year, more than 400 Sure Start children's centres closed during the first two years of coalition government. The projected cut in local authority funding implies that more could be set to follow - just this month it emerged that children's centres in Cambridgeshire are at risk due to a budget cut of nearly a quarter.

Hannah Dobbin, policy manager at Action for Children, which runs around 200 children's centres, says: "The projections we are seeing are not setting out a particularly positive outlook.

"We feel that there continues to be a direction of travel away from early intervention, which we want to avoid given all the evidence proving it is one of the most effective ways of improving lives and outcomes."

Safeguarding

Although spending on safeguarding services was one of those to rise, the 2.39 per cent increase still represents a real-terms cut because it is below the rate of inflation (2.7 per cent in August).

The headline figure also masks a 1.8 per cent drop in funding for children's social work and child protection - down £30m from £1.63bn to £1.6bn. The drop in child protection spending is largely hidden due to local authorities spending £70m more on strategic planning across children's services than they did in 2011/12, and £5m more funding for local safeguarding children boards.

The family support category, while rising overall from £825m to £939m, also contains service area cuts within it.

Universal family support will fall from £105m to £82m, while spending on respite care (short breaks) for disabled children will fall from £225m to £220m.

Spending on short breaks for looked-after disabled children (part of the children in care spending figures) also drops from £70m to £63m.

Una Summerson, head of policy at Contact a Family, warns that cutting back on services for families with disabled children will mean more "hardship, isolation and poorer outcomes".

"Contact a Family welcomed the government announcement in 2011 that £800m would be made available for short breaks for disabled children," she says.

"This showed how important government sees its role supporting disabled children and the benefits of using short break as an early intervention measure.

"Sadly, without ring-fencing, there is no guarantee that services for disabled children will not be cut. Alongside welfare changes, this means families with disabled children face extremely difficult times ahead."

Regional differences

Spending levels vary greatly for different areas of England, with total net spending on children's services forecast to drop in all but two English regions.

Spending in Yorkshire and Humber will go up from £794m to £803m, while in East Midlands it will rise by £5.6m to £596m.

In terms of individual authorities, spending will rise in less than one third (46) of England's 152 local authorities, dropping in the other 106. Notable decreases have been reported in Birmingham (down 8.2 per cent from £212m to £195m) and Coventry (down 13.4 per cent from £65m to £56m).

Significant increases have been reported in struggling Doncaster, where net spending will increase 21.6 per cent from £42m to £51m, and Lambeth - a rise of 42.6 per cent from £46m to £66m.

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Spending by local authorities on looked-after children will increase by two per cent (around £64m) from £3.2bn to £3.26bn. The main beneficiaries of this will be fostering services (up 2.85 per cent), adoption services (up 14.24 per cent) and special guardianship support (up 36.81 per cent).

Hugh Thornbery, chief executive of Adoption UK, says the increase in spending indicates that local authorities are responding to the government's adoption reforms.

"The increase in spending could be a consequence of the money that central government has put in for adoption with an expectation that local authorities would maintain it. We are seeing a transition," he says.

"What is of concern, particularly given the recent high-profile serious case review reports, is the disinvestment in more preventative services.

"We have long argued the case for adoption support, but all families need that kind of support.

"If funding for childcare and early years services declines at a time when families are finding life difficult because of unemployment and welfare changes, there will be more children coming into the care system. With the right level of support, some of those families could be staying together."

The biggest drop in spending in terms of looked-after children's budgets went to services for asylum-seeking children. Funding for those services is set to drop by more than a third from £70m to £45m.

Kamena Dorling, manager of the migrant children's project at Coram Children's Legal Centre, says: "Cuts to local authority funding have already led to the loss of specialist services for children on their own who are seeking protection in the UK.

"The numbers of asylum-seeking children have fallen in recent years, but a 35 per cent reduction in expenditure - a loss of £25m - is out of all proportion to the nine per cent fall in numbers between 2011 and 2012.

"Each child must be seen as a child first and foremost, and it is unacceptable if a lesser level of support is provided to those who arrive alone in the UK seeking safety from persecution, violence and exploitation.

"What is needed from central and local government is a clear commitment to affording these most vulnerable children the support and protection they so desperately need."

Spending on residential care will also drop by 2.09 per cent (£19m) to £905m, as will leaving care support services, down by 1.74 per cent from £227m to £223m.