Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the finding of Scope and the Disabled Children’s Partnership’s report entitled The Gap Widens, published in October 2021, that there is a £2.1 billion funding gap in disabled children’s health and social care, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Education, ahead of the upcoming Spending Review, on tackling unmet need in disabled children’s health and care services.

HM Treasury Ministers and officials regularly meet with other government departments and a range of stakeholders, which includes discussions around support for children.

The government has to date provided the NHS with over £32 billion to support its response to and recovery from COVID-19, which includes the provision of healthcare services to disabled children. This is part of the overall £97 billion support for health services since the start of the pandemic.

The government has also given over £6 billion in un-ringfenced funding directly to councils to support them with the immediate and longer-term impacts of COVID-19 spending pressures, including children’s services. At last year’s Spending Review, the government provided councils with access to over £1 billion of spending for social care through £300 million of new social care grant and the ability to introduce a 3% adult social care precept. This funding was additional to the £1 billion social care grant announced in 2019 which was maintained in line with the government's manifesto.

HM Treasury will continue to work with other government departments, including the Department for Health and Social Care, Department for Education and Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, to ensure the Spending Review reflects the requirements of children’s health and care services in the longer term.