Years of funding reductions have left council budgets “buckling” under soaring costs for children’s social care, a group of five leading children’s charities has warned.
The Children’s Services Funding Alliance found councils in England increased their spending on children’s services by £800 million in 2021/22 – an 8 per cent increase on the previous year.
Yet, despite this increase, spending on early intervention services has fallen by 45 per cent in the past 12 years.
The alliance, which consists of Action for Children, Barnardo’s, The Children’s Society, National Children’s Bureau and the NSPCC, found that 81 per cent of the recent increase went on crisis-intervention services, a rise from the 67 per cent seen a decade ago. Of this additional spending, £4 in every £5 went on late-intervention services, it said.
Cllr Louise Gittins, Chair of the LGA’s Children and Young People Board, said: “It is absolutely vital that, in the upcoming Autumn Statement, the Government adequately funds children’s services so councils can meet rising demand and ensure children and their families get the support they need, as soon as they need it.
“Significant additional funding for all councils, not just for those chosen for the Department for Education’s pilot and pathfinder schemes, can be wisely invested in stabilising the current system to ensure strong foundations on which to build future reform.”