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Cllr Judith Blake, Chair of the Local Government Association’s Children and Young People Board, responded to the Association of Directors of Children’s Services’ interim report on pressures on children’s social care faced by councils during 2019/20 

“This report reinforces the significant budget reductions councils have experienced and increasing numbers of children needing urgent help. As the impact of the pandemic becomes clear, councils expect to see a significant rise in referrals to children’s social care and demand for wider children’s support services.

“If we are to avoid families falling into crisis and causing long-term damage to the prospects of children and young people, we need to ensure councils have enough funding to reinvest in the preventative and early-help services that children, young people and families need, as soon as they need it.

“The extra funding for adult and children’s social care announced in the recent Spending Review is positive but will not on its own be enough to tackle the significant challenges facing children’s social care. Councils have been forced to scale back or cut universal and early help services altogether prior to the pandemic due to increasing demand for urgent child protection work alongside long-term funding reductions.

“With these pressures exacerbated by COVID-19, significant additional funding for children’s social care will be needed if we are to provide the support children, young people and their families need, when they need it. As a starting point, the £1.7 billion removed from the Early Intervention Grant since 2010 should be reinstated.”

Notes to editors

The Early Intervention Grant has been reduced by the Government from £2.8 billion in 2010/11 to £1.1 billion in 2018/19, as outlined in LGA publication, ‘A child-centred recovery’.

Safeguarding Pressures Phase 7 - Interim Report - December 2020