Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of trends in the level of central Government funding for local authorities on the adequacy of children's services provided by local authorities.

The number of inadequate local authorities has fallen by a third from 30 in April 2017 to 17 at the end of October 2019, as a result of our reforms.

Local authorities have been given access to over £200 billion in the 5 years since Spending Review 2015. The Spending Round 2019 also confirmed an additional £1 billion grant for adult and children’s social care services in 2020-21 in addition to the continuation of existing social care grants.