Children: Social Services

(asked on 15th January 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much central government funding was allocated to local authority children and young people’s services in (a) 2016, (b) 2017 and (c) 2018; and what proportion of that funding was allocated to early help services in each of those years.


Answered by
Nadhim Zahawi Portrait
Nadhim Zahawi
This question was answered on 21st January 2019

As children’s services are delivered through local government, the vast majority of their funding comes through the local government finance settlement (LGFS).

Over the 5 year period from 2015-16 to 2019-20, councils have access, through the LGFS, to over £200 billion to deliver local services. This core spending power, £43.7 billion in 2016-17, £44.3 billion in 2017-18 and £45.1 billion in 2018-19, is un-ring fenced and it is for local authorities to determine spend across different areas according to local priorities, including children’s and early help services.

In addition to this the Autumn Budget announced a further £410 million in 2019-20 for local authorities to invest in adult and children’s social care services. It also announced £84 million of extra funding, over the next 5 years, to support local authorities to invest in initiatives that improve social work practice and decision making.

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