What you should know about the Autumn Spending Review 2015

Today was the day George Osborne revealed his much anticipated, forewarned and feared Autumn Statement and Spending Review. Below I have summarised the key items I find particularly relevant to those working with children and families (I like lists and bullet points). I haven't added any analysis or comment yet but hope to put something together soon.

EDUCATION

• The government will protect the department’s central children’s services budget at over £300 million per year to ‘help drive up social care workforce standards to improve support for vulnerable children’.
• Funding for universal infant free school meals will be maintained.
• £1 billion more a year by 2019 to 2020 in free childcare places for 2-, 3- and 4-year-olds.
• 30hrs free childcare for 3- and 4-year-olds with working parents from September 2017
• Eligibility for 30 hours free childcare will be dependent upon an upper income limit per parent of £100,000, and a minimum weekly income level per parent equivalent to 16 hours (worked at the national living wage).
• £50m to increase places in nurseries.
• £300m a year to increase the average hourly rate paid to childcare providers.
• Increased funding for teacher training and recruitment to deliver the English Baccalaureate and more specialist STEM (Science, Teachnology, Engineering and Mathematics) teaching.
• The government will introduce a national funding formula for schools, high needs and early years.
• The government will reduce the local authority role in running schools and remove a number of statutory duties. 
• Sixth-form colleges in England will be given the opportunity to become academies.
• The government will help [or encourage] schools to make savings on procurement, including by exploiting economies of scale.
• Savings of around £600 million will be made on the Education Service Grants (ESG), including phasing out the additional funding schools receive through the ESG.
• Maintenance loans will be available to higher education students who study part time from 2018.

APPRENTICESHIPS

• A new apprenticeship levy of 0.5% will be imposed by April 2017 on company payrolls to fund three million apprenticeships. 

WELFARE & TAX CREDITS

• Because the government has announced an improvement in the public finances, they will no longer be implementing the controversial changes to tax credits. Tax credits will, however, be phased out anyway as the government introduces universal credit.
• Two-child limit on child tax credit claims to go ahead from April 2017

HOUSING

• Housing benefit for new social tenants to be capped at same level as private sector
• Councils to receive extra £10m to help homeless people

COUNCIL TAX

• Councils will be permitted to add 2% on council tax to pay towards social care in their areas, if they wish.
• From 2020 they will be able to keep money from business rates collected from shops and businesses, to spend on local services like street repairs, libraries and transport.
• From April 2016, police forces will be able to increase the amount they require from council tax collections by 2%.

HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE

• By 2020, health and social care will be integrated across England.
• Grants for health students will be replaced by loans, and the cap on the number of nurses and midwives that can go into training each year will be removed

STATE PENSION

• From April 2016, the basic state pension will rise to £119.30 per week, an increase of £3.35.

TAMPON TAX

• £15 million in VAT collected each year on sanitary products (deemed a ‘luxury item’ by EU rules) will be donated to ‘women’s charities’.

POLICING AND JUSTICE

• Osborne said he would not, in the wake of the Paris terror attacks, go ahead with any cuts to police budgets in England and Wales.
• Underused courts to be sold off, raising £700m for new technology
•  Old, Victorian prisons that are not suitable for rehabilitating prisoners will be sold and over a billion pounds will be spent building nine new modern prisons

ENERGY BILLS

• The Warm Home Discount scheme will be extended to 2020-2021 giving certain low-income households a one-off reduction of £140 on their electricity bill.

 
*I’ll update this post as more details are revealed.