News

The number of children’s social care placements costing £10,000 or more per week has risen sharply in five years, a survey of councils by the Local Government Association reveals today.

Children’s services are continuing to deliver improvements and sustain strong performance, despite significant national challenges, a new report commissioned by the Local Government Association reveals today.

Growing demand for support has lead to 75 per cent of councils in England overspending on their children’s services budgets by more than half a billion pounds.

Councils are in a unique position of being able to make the real and effective change needed locally that will ultimately help to solve some of the biggest problems the nation is facing and changing the lives of their communities. 

Severe funding shortages for social services that protect vulnerable children have pushed nearly nine in 10 councils into the red, new LGA analysis relveals.

Families face the prospect of seeing more children’s centres close in their community after figures analysed by the Local Government Association showed councils have been forced to cut their spending on the service by nearly a quarter in four years.

"We’ve reached a tipping point where this service can no longer be ignored. It is absolutely crucial that the forthcoming Local Government Finance Settlement addresses this funding gap."

The largest independent providers of children’s social care brought in profits of more than £300 million last year, a new report commissioned by the Local Government Association reveals today.

A coalition of councils, charities and campaigners - including those with experience of the children’s care system - has written a joint open letter to the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt urging him in Wednesday’s Autumn Statement to provide the funding children’s social care “desperately needs…before it is pushed to the brink”.

We remain concerned that additional funding for children’s social care reform is significantly lower than that recommended by the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care.