Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of funding for the delivery of children’s social care in local authorities.

Local authorities set their own children’s services budget from their core spending power, based on local need and priorities, and they have increased spend on children’s services over time. In 2020/21 councils spent £11.1 billion on children’s and young people’s services.

The department has boosted real-terms funding to local authorities, including creating the social care grant, which has risen from £410 million in 2019 to £2.35 billion this year. In total in 2022/23, councils have access to over £54 billion in core spending power for their services, including for children and young people. This is £3.7 billion more than in 2021/22.

As announced in May 2022, the department will consider the recommendations of the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, the National Panel Review into the murders of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and Star Hobson and the Competition and Market Authority study into Children’s Social Care Placements and set out plans for Children’s Social Care reform through an implementation strategy. This includes considering the recommendation to introduce an updated funding formula for children’s services.