ADCS President John Pearce said:
“We welcome recognition in the Budget that government needs to address the substantial challenges we face in children’s residential care, we are particularly pleased that the government has committed to developing proposals aimed at tackling profiteering in the children’s placements system and to prevent scarce funds being diverted away from vulnerable children, and the public purse, to shareholders. The additional investment to upgrade the existing secure children’s home estate and to rebuild two secure children’s homes as well as some additional capital funding for new residential provision and investment for special free schools is welcome. There is an urgent need for government action to ensure there are enough high-quality placements for children in care when and where they are needed, and further substantial funding will be required in the future to enable that. In addition, the continuation of the Household Support Fund is a welcome relief for now, but we still need long term national investment to allow us to provide vital early support when and where it’s needed. The £2.6 billion investment identified in the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care must be prioritised in the next comprehensive spending review alongside a long term sustainable funding settlement for local government.
“The context for this Spring Budget is 14 years of austerity meaning year on year cuts while levels of need and complexity being seen in communities has increased. Public services that have been creaking for years are now crumbling, as the Institute for Government has warned. Comments about ‘wasteful’ councils are particularly unhelpful when a growing number of councils are effectively bankrupt, or dangerously close to this, and many vital and valued services, including early help and preventative services that help children and families early before they reach crisis point, are at risk. The overriding issue is the severe and systematic underfunding of local government in the face of rising levels of need and costs.”
ENDS