Local authority children and young people’s services cover a range of support, from parenting programmes in children’s centres to local safeguarding teams who step in and protect children from harm. Despite the crucial role these services play in the lives of millions of children and families every year, they are in the midst of a financial crisis.
This has left many facing difficult choices about how to maintain services communities rely on – including those for children and young people. Despite their best efforts to limit the impact of cuts, local authority spending on children and young people’s services has fallen sharply. Worryingly, this has taken place as the demand for support has increased. The combination of cuts to funding and rising demand has pushed local authorities to allocate ever greater proportion of their spending to areas such as safeguarding and children in care. The National Audit Office has found local authorities have responded to financial pressures by having to prioritise their statutory child protection work and reducing spending on non-statutory children’s services, those which step in early and stop problems reaching crisis point. Later this year, the Government is due to announce how much funding is to be made available to local authorities for local services as part of the Spending Review. This is a vital opportunity to address the funding crisis facing children and young people’s services. Without additional investment, local authorities will be continue to struggle to respond to the needs of children in their communities.
Ahead of the Spending Review, our analysis provides an overview of the latest trends in funding and spending on children and young people’s services illustrating the scale of the challenges facing local authorities.
Keywords: Children's services
