The Public Accounts Committee has published a report on funding for children’s services in England. Findings include: the Department for Education (DfE) cannot explain the wide variation between local authorities in the activity and cost of children’s social care, the increasing use of residential care is placing local authorities under extreme financial pressure and there is a lack of evidence on the effectiveness of early intervention in children’s social care.
Recommendations include: the DfE should set out what improvements it is seeking in children’s social care by 2022; and the DfE should develop and lead on a cross government strategy for raising the quality in children’s social care.
Further details are available here.