News

Growing demand for support has lead to 75 per cent of councils in England overspending on their children’s services budgets by more than half a billion pounds.

Severe funding shortages for social services that protect vulnerable children have pushed nearly nine in 10 councils into the red, new LGA analysis relveals.

The largest independent providers of children’s social care brought in profits of more than £300 million last year, a new report commissioned by the Local Government Association reveals today.

A coalition of councils, charities and campaigners - including those with experience of the children’s care system - has written a joint open letter to the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt urging him in Wednesday’s Autumn Statement to provide the funding children’s social care “desperately needs…before it is pushed to the brink”.