Poor areas worst affected by children’s services cuts

Council areas with the highest levels of deprivation are bearing the brunt of children’s services funding cuts, research has found. Analysis of spending on children and young people’s services across England over a five-year period found that the least affluent areas have been disproportionately affected by funding cuts. The most deprived 20 per cent of councils saw their spending per child cut by a quarter (27 per cent) between 2010 and 2015, while the least deprived 20 per cent of areas experienced cuts of only four per cent. Overall between 2010 and 2015 there was a 16 per cent cut in spending per child, the research by the University of Sheffield and University of Huddersfield found. Read more.