CHILDREN'S SERVICES

Welsh councils call for ring-fenced preventative funding

A new preventative fund should be created in Wales to help ease the strain on children’s services, councils have said.

A new preventative fund should be created in Wales to help ease the strain on children's services, councils have said.

In a joint statement, the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) and the Association of Directors of Social Service in Wales warned children's services needed urgent investment to meet increased demand.

The organisations called for the new funding to be ring-fenced to establish a preventative fund.

Figures show that councils' expenditure on children's services has increased by 30% in real terms over the last decade despite core grant funding reducing by 22% over the same time period.

The WLGA's spokesman for health and social care, Cllr Huw David, said: ‘As Welsh Government considers its plans for next year's budget it is vital that real additional funding is provided to local government to meet the growing funding gap being seen across councils and within social care - otherwise our vital services will continue to be at considerable risk and will not be sustainable in the longer-term.'

CHILDREN'S SERVICES

More than a service

By Louise Hayes | 27 June 2025

As Shared Lives week comes to a close, Louise Hayes explains how the scheme is transforming social care in Surrey.

CHILDREN'S SERVICES

Re-wiring the state

By Ann McGauran | 27 June 2025

Sheffield’s network of Family Hubs are playing a crucial role in testing key aspects of the Government’s public service reform agenda. Ann McGauran reports.

CHILDREN'S SERVICES

The power of the dream

By Jon Rouse | 27 June 2025

Jon Rouse says that rather than being a bureaucratic exercise, reorganisation is about complete reinvention of what the state exists to do – enabling communi...

CHILDREN'S SERVICES

We're ready to lead

By Joanna Killian | 27 June 2025

Ahead of the LGA Conference, Joanna Killian says the sector should take confidence in how far it has come and the potential that lies ahead, and that its fut...

Popular articles by Laura Sharman