Office of Children Commissioner’s annual report

“It is a measure of a strong society how we support the most vulnerable people in this country. We are making record investments in education and in children’s services to help improve outcomes and support young people to overcome the challenges they face.

“This includes action across Government on children’s mental health, making sure excluded pupils receive a good education, tackling the root causes of violent crime, supporting parents with early learning at home, and providing tailored support for children with special educational needs and disabilities.

“We know the compounding impact disadvantages and vulnerabilities have on children’s outcomes but also recognise council and school budgets are under pressure. That’s why we are providing £2.4 billion each year to support disadvantaged pupils through the pupil premium and gathering as much evidence as possible on what works to support those most in need ahead of the Spending Review.”

Further information:

• The Autumn Budget announced a further £410 million in 2019-20 for local authorities to invest in adult and children’s social care services.
• Core funding for schools and high needs rising from almost £41 billion in 2017-18 to £43.5 billion this year.
• The Government is providing local authorities with access to £46.4 billion this year – a real terms increase – including extra funding to support some of our most vulnerable groups.
• On top of this, the Department for Education is investing £84m in targeted, evidence-based interventions to improve the support provided to vulnerable children and their families and enable more children to stay at home thriving in stable family environments.
• This is on top of the over £200 billion until 2020 made available at the 2015 SR for councils to deliver local services, including children’s services.
• Since 2010,  44 LAs have been lifted out of intervention and not returned. 
• Since 2010, more than 1,700 social workers have been trained through our fast-track training schemes, Frontline and Step Up to Social Work.
• The Government is on course to create a million new school places in a decade by 2020 and the attainment gap between disadvantaged students and their more affluent peers has fallen since 2011.
• Children’s mental health is a key priority for this Government and we are transforming services through the NHS Long Term Plan – backed by an extra £2.3 billion a year – so that 345,000 more children and young people have access to specialist mental health care by 2023/24.
• The Government is already on track to ensure 70,000 more children and young people get access to specialist mental health care by 2020/21 and are piloting a four-week waiting time in some areas so we can better understand how to reduce waiting times.
• More than £8 million of funding has been committed to specifically support children affected by domestic abuse. This includes funding nine projects through the Government’s Children Affected by Domestic Abuse Fund designed to intervene early to help children who have been directly or indirectly affected by domestic abuse.
• The £200 million Youth Endowment Fund will identify and support organisations with a proven track record of diverting vulnerable young people away from violent crime and is managed by the charitable foundation impetus. 
• Through the Children in Need review we have identified what needs to be done in to address the injustice of poorer educational outcomes for children in need.
• The Government is taking forward the recommendations of the Timpson Review into exclusions to make schools accountable for students they permanently exclude, tackle off-rolling and reform Alternative Provision settings.
• The Troubled Families Programmes has been helping around 400,000 families facing multiple challenges change their lives by fundamentally changing the way local services are delivered – with services joining up around whole families to overcome problems before they escalate.