Comment on budgeted spend children’s social care

Chris Munday, Chair of the ADCS Resources and Sustainability Policy Committee, said:

“Across England, every day the children’s workforce is seeking to meet the needs of a range of children and families, those with a disability, those requiring early help to stop issues escalating and those at risk of abuse and neglect some of whom will be in our care, for example. The pandemic, and the cost of living crisis, has and will continue to have significant impacts on the wellbeing of children and families. It is inevitable that this will cost money and local authorities are having to prioritise spend on children’s social care to support those who need it. This is challenging for local authorities who continue to make increasingly difficult decisions about many services that children and families rely on including early help and prevention services that can reduce demand for statutory child protection services. The independent review of children’s social care found that the sector is under-resourced to carry out critical tasks to enable children to flourish and that the children’s placements market is broken. We urgently need a sustainable, long-term funding settlement for children’s services and government intervention into the placements market, otherwise children’s outcomes continue to be placed at risk. We urge the new Prime Minister to prioritise spending on children, they are our present as well as our future.”

ENDS

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