The Government must make ‘some difficult decisions’ if it is ‘not able or willing’ to provide funding to meet the financial pressures in children’s services, the president of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, John Pearce, has said.

Speaking at the National Children and Adult Services Conference in Bournemouth, he said the Government should ‘as a minimum’ urgently set out national conditions to intervene in the children’s residential care market and ensure the successful implementation of the agency workforce reforms.