An Introductory Guide To Children's Social Care Funding (2018 edition)

The Munro review led to a more systematic approach to safeguarding and protection. The 2014 Act led to the replacement of the statement of education needs and learning disability assessments with single education, health and care (EHC) plans. Austerity has led to a major reduction in children’s centres and youth services.

There has been an increasing shift in practice to act as early and as quickly as possible, seen in the troubled families initiative launched in 2015 and other support to families and children on the edge of care through early help.

This publication aims to provide an improved understanding of the financial issues of children’s services and give a better appreciation of the financial framework within which children’s services are delivered.

It offers an introduction to the subject and is written with a wide audience in mind, including finance professionals, social services professionals, heads of service and budget managers, children’s trust board members, researchers, academics and others interested in the financial background to children’s services.

Among other things, this updated version considers:

• how the commissioning practice had developed, with an emphasis on collaboration and costs
• the accounting and reporting framework and how it works within service pressures that have increased over the last ten years
• the effect of challenging inspection regimes and what can be learned from improvement journeys.

This title is available in as a PDF. Customers and subscribers will need to login to CIPFA’s website to access the publication.