Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the likely demand for children’s services in Birmingham in (a) 2018-19, (b) 2019-20, and (c) 2020/21.

Information on every local authority’s demand and spend in children’s services are published in the department’s statistical first releases and brought together in our local authority interactive tool: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-authority-interactive-tool-lait.

Birmingham’s core spending power for 2018 to 2019 is £888.3 million and is rising to £888.6 million in 2019 to 2020.

My right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister and my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer have agreed that all long-term spending decisions are for the Spending Review, which will take place later this year.

The department is working alongside the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the sector as part of the fair funding review of relative needs and resources to develop a robust, up-to-date approach to funding distribution for children's services, which will determine new baseline funding allocations for local authorities in England in 2020 to 2021.