Funding for children’s services slashed by a third since 2010

Since 2010, funding available for children’s services has fallen from £813 to £553 per child in England, the UK's leading children's charities have announced this month.

The analysis of official figures by a coalition of children’s charities has identified “kids’ cuts hotspots” across England – where the top 20 councils who have faced the worst drop in funding between 2010 and 2018 were revealed.

London takes biggest funding cuts in children’s services across England

Councils in London have suffered the most significant cuts, with the top five across all of England coming from the capital. Westminster’s funding per child was the worst in the country, dropping by more than half (52%), from £1,591.16 to just £761.62. This was closely followed by Tower Hamlets and Camden where funding was cut by 49% (a drop of £870.68 in Tower Hamlets and £640.09 in Camden). Newham suffered a 46% funding cut, going from £1332.78 to £685.69. The same percentage was also lost in Hackney, with £515.50 being cut from their 2010 figure of £1,451.78.

Other London areas that placed in the country’s top 20 “kids’ cut hotspots” were Islington (-45%), Barking & Dagenham (-43%), Southwark (-43%), Hammersmith & Fulham (-42%), Haringey (-41%), Wandsworth (-40%), Greenwich (-40%) and Lambeth (-40%).

The research compiled by Action for Children, Barnardo’s, NSPCC, The Children’s Society and the National Children’s Bureau warns that the problem goes beyond the capital. Outside of London, three areas in the North West – Manchester (-45%), Liverpool (-41%) and Salford (-40%) – were also included in the top 20 list. Nottingham, Birmingham, Slough and Newcastle upon Tyne (-43%, -42%, -40% and -40% respectively) were the remaining areas in England who have suffered an extreme level of funding cuts in the past eight years.

With the number of young people going into care or onto child protection plans continuing to rise at an alarming rate, councils across England were forced to spend £816 million more on children’s social care than they budgeted for in 2017/18. During this period, the number of child protection enquiries was up 158% and the number of children on child protection plans increased more than 25,000.

Julie Bentley, chief executive at Action for Children, commented on the findings:

“With the number of child protection cases and children being taken into care at their highest for a decade, it’s unthinkable to continue forcing councils to make crippling cuts to services. Without urgent cash from central government, thousands more children at risk of neglect and abuse will slip through the cracks and into crisis.”

Responding to the analysis, Chair of the Local Government Association’s Children and Young People Board, Cllr Antoinette Bramble, concluded:

“Children’s social care is facing a country-wide cash crisis, with nine in 10 councils spending more than they planned to last year. It is vital that the Government heeds the consistent and increasingly urgent warnings that children’s services are not at a tipping point, and uses the upcoming Spending Review to deliver a long-term strategy that enables councils to meet the growing need for support from some of the most vulnerable children in society.”

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