Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how they intend to ensure that there is sufficient funding for local government children’s services.

Over the Spending Review period, councils will have access to more than £200 billion for local services, including children’s services. The 2018/19 Local Government Finance Settlement confirmed a real terms increase in resources available to local government over the next two years - £44.3 billion in 2017-18 to £45.6 billion in 2019-20. Core Spending Power is largely unringfenced so that local authorities can decide how to direct their funding.

In addition, my Department and the Department for Education are working together on the fair funding review of relative needs and resources. This aims to address concerns about the current funding distributions. The Government is committed to working with partners to understand how the Department for Education might further support improvement across the system.