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<p>Funding for children’s services is an un-ring-fenced part of the wider local government
finance settlement, to give local authorities the flexibility to focus on locally
determined priorities and, of course, their statutory responsibilities, including
children’s social care. Over the five year period from 2015-16 to 2019-20 councils
will have access to more than £200 billion to deliver the local services their communities
want to see, including children’s services. In February, Parliament confirmed the
2018-19 settlement for local government, providing a real terms increase in resources
available to local government - £44.3 billion in 2017-18 to £45.1 billion in 2018-19.</p><p>
</p><p>The government’s fair funding review of relative needs and resources will develop
a robust, up-to-date approach to distributing funding across all local authorities
in England at local government finance settlements, including for children’s services.
We are working towards implementation in 2020/21, while keeping this date under review
as our work progresses.</p><p> </p><p>To inform the review, the Department for Education
and the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government have jointly commissioned
a data research and collection project on the cost and demand pressures for children’s
services, to understand local authorities’ relative funding needs.</p>
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