More than half of councils in England are planning to slash costs by cutting spending on services for children. These measures include closing children’s centres, reducing support for disabled children and cutting child protection teams.



Analysis of council financing by the Bureau reveals a local government crisis as the costs of supporting vulnerable children pushes almost all councils over budget. This has prompted cuts to services.

Across all, nine out of ten councils will spend more money than they bring in by the end of March this year - with one overspending by £14m.

The Bureau has scrutinised hundreds of financial forecasts published by local authorities and analysed their historical spending records during a four-month investigation.

In budget plans for the coming year published by 101 councils responsible for children’s services, the Bureau found 57 planning to make cuts in this area. Nearly all of those are already over budget for these services this year.

“These findings are deeply concerning”, said Labour’s shadow secretary of state for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Andrew Gwynne. “Unless the government finally listens to the demands of councillors, parents and politicians of all parties, and makes a change of direction, then more vulnerable children will go without the care that they need, and councils will be pushed dangerously close to the financial brink."

These findings come as a survey of councils by the Local Government Information Unit reveals that nearly a third (31.8%) say finding money to pay for children’s social care is their biggest immediate concern. This is a huge leap from the 7% that said it was their biggest concern last year.

On February 6 2018 the government announced an additional £150m for councils' adult social care budgets in the coming year. This was on top of an extra £2bn that was set aside last spring.

No extra funds have yet been made available for children’s services.

The Bureau’s analysis of past spending data reported to central government shows that children’s services have been a bigger cost pressure than adult care in each of the last four years.

Adjusted for changes in costs, overspend across all councils on children’s social care reached £655m in the last full financial year, while it was £536m for adult social care.

Dr Sam Royston, director of policy and research at the Children’s Society, said: “These stark figures reveal an all-too familiar picture of the perilous state of children’s services...it’s no surprise that they are over-spending as they struggle to cope with slashed budgets and soaring demands.”