Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of funding local government receives to deliver children’s services.

Funding for local government services, including children’s services, is set initially in the Spending Review. My right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, has announced that the next Spending Review will be in 2019 and that decisions about the future funding of children’s services will be taken in the round.

We are working with the sector both to develop a thorough understanding of children’s services costs and pressures and to help local authorities to innovate and reform services to achieve better quality and efficiency.

The government has listened to the sector, which requested additional funding for social care. That is why we have provided flexibility for £410 million in grant funding for social care in the period of 2019 to 2020 to be directed according to what local authorities consider to be their top social care priorities, including children’s social care.

In preparation for the Spending Review, and as part of the government’s review of relative needs and resources, new up-to-date formulas are being developed to ensure that funding distribution to councils is based on the best available evidence. The department and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government have commissioned an ambitious data research project from independent contractors to inform this work.