Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information his Department holds on the amount local authorities in (a) Greater Manchester and (b) the North West overspent on children’s services in 2017-18; and whether he plans to provide additional funding for local authority run children's services.

Local authorities are required under Section 251 of the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act (2009) to submit education and children’s social care budget and expenditure statements. This data is published in statistical releases annually:

• Budget is from Table 3 of: ‘Planned local authority and school expenditure: 2018 to 2019 financial year’: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/planned-la-and-school-expenditure-2018-to-2019-financial-year.
• Outturn is from Table 7 of ‘Local authority and school expenditure: 2017 to 2018 financial year’: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/la-and-school-expenditure-2017-to-2018-financial-year.

This data is published for all local authorities in statistical releases annually.

At Autumn Budget, my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced an extra £410 million next year for social care, including children’s services, along with £84 million over 5 years to support up to 20 local authorities to improve their social work practice. This builds on the £200 billion government has already made available to councils up to 2020 to provide services in the best interests of local residents, including those for children and young people.

The government will continue to work closely with the sector to consider long-term children’s services funding as part of the 2019 Spending Review, when the government will set out its long-term spending approach.