Children: Social Services

(asked on 7th March 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the impact on local authorities of the mandatory legal duty to provide early help.


Answered by
Will Quince Portrait
Will Quince
This question was answered on 16th March 2022

Under the Children Act 1989, local authorities are required to provide services for children in need for the purposes of safeguarding and promoting their welfare. The statutory guidance, ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’ is clear that local areas should have a comprehensive range of effective, evidence-based services in place to address needs early. The ‘Local Government Finance Settlement’ made available £54.1 billion for the 2022/23 financial year for local government in England, an increase of up to £3.7 billion, over 4.5% in real terms, on the 2021/22 financial year.

This significant investment includes over £630 million additional funding for the social care grant, bringing the total grant to £2.4 billion. In addition, local authorities will have access to a one-off Services Grant in the 2022/23 financial year which is worth over £800 million that can be used for all services, including children’s social care.

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