In the recent Budget the new government confirmed that it is considering its plans for children’s social care reform, to be set out in next year’s Spending Review. This is welcome news for local authorities. Last year the County Councils Network highlighted that for the first-time children’s services had become the single biggest spending pressure on council budgets; estimated at £318m and accounting for 45% of total overspends, outstripping every other service including adult social care. This is an urgent issue to be tackled – not only to best support the current record numbers of our most vulnerable children in the care system, but also to help address the financial sustainability of local authorities.

This report is therefore released at an opportune time to help inform the choices that are on the table for reform. As the data it contains lays bare, the costs of supporting children in care are rising sharply, but unfortunately outcomes are not rising commensurately. In particular it shows that too often there appears to be far too little correlation between the increasingly eye-watering cost of individual placements when set against the needs of the individual children that reside in them.

Cllr Roger Gough

Children’s Services Spokesperson for the County Councils Network and Leader of Kent Council