On Wednesday 30 October, the Government published its Autumn Budget. It included a commitment to an extra £1.3 billion in funding for local authorities for the next financial year. This will provide some much-needed support for councils struggling to deliver vital services for children and young people, their families, and the communities in which they live.
However, councils are under significant financial pressure. This is being most keenly felt in areas that directly impact children, like children’s social care and support for children with special educational needs and disabilities. This budget is unlikely to fix all these challenges, so as we look towards the Comprehensive Spending Review in the spring we will continue to advocate to the UK Government to prioritise investing resources into supporting the most vulnerable children in the UK.
In response to the Budget, Dr Philip Goodwin, Chief Executive Officer for UNICEF UK, said: “Today’s budget was an opportunity for the UK Government to put children first. Instead, two policies that would have made an immediate improvement to the lives of children in the UK and across the world were overlooked.
“Here in the UK, 4.3 million children are living in poverty. Had the Government ended the two-child limit, 300,000 children would have been lifted out of poverty. Immediately.
“Globally, 333 million children are living in extreme poverty. Had the Government invested in the aid budget, children would have had a more optimistic future. Instead, the aid budget reached its lowest point in 17 years.
“Finances are tight. But these decisions were not inevitable. The Government could have decided to invest in the lives of children. But instead, the most vulnerable here and around the world have not been prioritised.”
Read our full statement here.