The wellbeing of children and young people is at risk from cuts to local services, the Children’s Commissioner has warned. Analysis by the BBC shows local authorities are making £3bn in savings this financial year, but still face a funding shortfall of more than £5.7bn by 2026-27.
Local government experts said councils had carried out “all of the easy cuts” years ago and were now struggling to protect vital children’s and adult social care services.
Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza said: “Children must not pay the price for balancing budgets.Local government minister Jim McMahon said the new government had inherited a crisis and there was “no shying away” from the scale of it.
The BBC’s Shared Data Unit surveyed 187 upper-tier authorities in the UK, which provide services from adult social care to bin collections and pothole repairs.
As well as having a growing black hole in their finances, councils were forced to dip into their reserves this year, drawing down more than £1bn in an effort to balance their books.
And 19 of them have called for financial support from the government – an “unprecedented” number, according to the Local Government Association (LGA).
Key findings
Our investigation found:
Cuts to social workers and safeguarding teams, along with reductions in spend on teams helping young people at risk of sexual exploitation
A significant number of reviews and cuts concerning transport for disabled children and adults
Reduction in spend on legal services, including on counsel for children’s social care cases
Cuts to numerous projects supporting young people, reductions in playground maintenance and pauses in apprenticeship recruitment
Widespread cuts to education spend, affecting teaching staff and classroom budgets as well as music lessons
Removal of period poverty programmes
Source: BBC
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