ADCS response to the Budget 2020 announcement

Responding to the Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Spring Budget announcement Jenny Coles, ADCS Vice President, said:

“It is right that the NHS will get what it needs to deal with the outbreak of coronavirus, and we welcome any additional funding for schools and colleges as well as for the communities devastated by this year’s floods. However, we are frustrated that the Chancellor focussed more on broadband, trains and freezes to beer duty in his speech than on children.

“Beyond schools, there was a commitment of funding for research but if, as the Chancellor proclaimed, this Budget ‘provides for security today but also a plan for prosperity tomorrow’ the Treasury must recognise children are our present as well as our future – investing in them properly and sustainably makes human and economic sense.

“Since 2010, funding for local authorities has been halved but the level and complexity of need we are experiencing has not. Up and down the country, councils are having to make increasingly difficult decisions like cutting the very services that prevent children and families from reaching crisis point and reduce future demand. This is not in children’s best interests.

“If this government is serious about ‘levelling up’ then greater focus and prioritisation must be given to children and their families, particularly the most vulnerable. The next Budget and forthcoming Spending Review present the Treasury with the opportunity to ‘get it done’ for children.”

ENDS

---

---