Council chiefs have urged the Government to invest more into early intervention to support the children’s social care system and to prevent struggling children from ‘reaching crisis point’.
Inadequate funding is causing councils severe difficulty in providing children’s social care services, which receive referrals for roughly 1,700 children each day, many of which require additional support for complex needs.
Although social care budgets have increased by 11%since 2023, over 620,000 referrals to children’s social care services were made over the last year, leaving local authorities ‘trapped in a downward financial spiral’, says a spokesperson for the Children’s Charities Coalition.
Identifying the decrease in early intervention spending, the Local Government Association has emphasised the importance of accommodating prevention and support measures within councils’ social care budgets.
The chair of the LGA’s Children and Young People Board said: ‘The Spending Review is an opportunity for long-term, sustainable funding for children’s social care and the services children and families rely on, that puts the sector on a stable footing and provides the support that enables every child to thrive.’
A risk assessment of the social care referrals from 2024 determined that more than half of the children investigated were suffering abuse and harm, reinforcing the need for early intervention and response.
