Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that local authority children’s services will have adequate resources to manage any increase in demand for their support in autumn 2020.

The government announced at the Local Government Finance Settlement that English councils' core spending power is rising by over £2.9 billion this financial year. This includes £1 billion of new grant funding that can be used flexibly by local authorities to deliver adult and children’s social care services. Further to this, the government has provided £3.7 billion of additional funding to support local authorities to meet COVID-19 related pressures, including in children’s services.

We will continue to work closely with local authorities as the COVID-19 outbreak progresses.