The pandemic has exacerbated pressures on families and children’s services.
Pressures on council services have been exacerbated by COVID-19, not least demands and costs relating to children’s social care and children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
During the first lockdown, reports to the NSPCC of physical abuse rose by 53 per cent, while alcohol and drug misuse by a child or someone in their household were identified in 15 and 18 per cent respectively of ‘children in need’ assessments during 2019/20.
Currently, referral levels to children’s social care remain lower than average, but those that are coming through are, anecdotally, more complex, which indicates ongoing hidden harm that may not be identified for a long time.
It’s important to stress that although COVID-19 has exacerbated the strains on children’s social care services, these services were already under significant financial pressure before the pandemic.
Research by the National Audit Office found that spending on preventative children’s services fell from 41 to just 25 per cent of children’s services budgets between 2010/11 and 2017/18 – driven by significant cuts to council budgets over the past 10 years and increasing demand for child protection services.
Meanwhile, the number and proportion of looked-after children has been rising annually for more than a decade. In 2009/10, 64,470 children were in care, or 57 in every 100,000. In 2019/20, that figure was 80,080 or 67 in every 100,000.
Rising demand for services means that despite budgets for children’s social care rising by more than £1.1 billion between 2017/18 and 2019/20, more than eight in 10 councils were still forced to overspend to ensure children were protected.
“Services were already under significant financial pressure before the pandemic”
We are calling on government to fund the existing £1 billion pressures on children’s social care, as well as future cost pressures estimated at £0.6 billion for each year of the Spending Review, and to implement a cross-Whitehall strategy to support children, young people and their families.
The ongoing financial impact of SEND is also of serious concern to councils. More than 430,000 children and young people had an education, health and care plan (EHCP) in England in January 2021, a spike of 11 per cent or 60,000 over the previous 12 months alone – continuing a yearly increase in EHCPs since 2010.
Despite additional government funding, there remains an estimated funding gap of £0.6 billion by 2021. Annual increases in ‘high needs block’ resources also do not go far enough.
Transport for children and young people with SEND is a further rising cost pressure and now accounts for 69 per cent of all home-to-school transport expenditure.
It is good that the Government has pledged an additional £780 million for high needs budgets in 2022/23, but it is vital that the Spending Review provides councils with long-term sufficiency of, and certainty over, funding to support children with SEND, including a commitment to write off councils’ existing high needs deficits.
As well as putting children at the centre of our recovery, the Government needs to urgently complete its ongoing review of the SEND system.
In addition to providing long-term funding certainty, this needs to set out reforms that increase mainstream inclusion, and give councils the power to hold education and health partners to account if their provision for identifying and supporting children with SEND is not adequate.