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.

As some of you will already know, I am a Social Worker and Blogger here at Barefoot Social Work . I am particularly interested in adverse childhood experiences and finding ways in which children and their families can be supported to mitigate their negative long term affects. I am passionate about supporting children to remain in the care of their family and I believe strongly that local services should be available to make that happen. That is why I am particularly concerned (and have blogged) about austerity and the impact this will have on vulnerable children and their families. I believe Social Workers should help shape the political debate about issues that affect the people we support. We can do this in a number of ways: private conversations, engaging with media outlets, campaigning, petitioning and social research (to name a few).

Last week I was offered the very exciting opportunity to undertake a Phd at Manchester Metropolitan University. My study will look at 'Enabling Families in Austere Times' and will include a detailed ethonographic exploration of Home Start  in England. 

The austerity narrative dominates the shaping of social care services and families’ experiences of care within Britain. Anxiety and insecurity are prevailing aspects of contemporary life and research highlights the negative impact on low and middle-income families. Government policy and the recent conservative budget increasingly emphasises the importance of ‘good’ parenting, with parents being expected to be responsible citizens, bear the impact of austerity measures, and take the blame for a myriad of societal issues. Third sector organisations play significant roles in the delivery of social care, particularly within a landscape of welfare state retrenchment and pressure on support services. However, there are significant gaps in empirically-based research that clarifies the distinctiveness of organisations.

Home-Start  has been the focus of limited research focused on enhanced children’s school readiness (Love et al., 1976) and improvements in children’s behaviour (Hermans et al., 2013). Existing research does not focus on the role that Home-Start performs in local communities, the diversity of families or the experiences of volunteers. In 2014 my research supervisor, Jenny Fisher and colleagues, undertook a small-scale evaluation of Home-Start Manchester South. This identified that they provide an invaluable support for families experiencing difficulties across South Manchester through the role of volunteers.

The main aim of my research is to build upon the previous research and interrogate the impact of Home-Start on families in austere times. This will develop an empirically and theoretically sound understanding of family support and characteristics of Home-Start in supporting families. If you have followed the news around Kids Company over the last couple of weeks you will understand how important it is that organisations are accountable to those that invest personally and financially, and are able to evidence outcomes and efficacy. 

I am very excited about this opportunity and I am honoured that Manchester Metropolitan University and Home Start are supporting this research. I will start in September and would really appreciate your support. Please take a look at my fundraising page. If anyone is interested in following the progress of my research, I will be posting regular updates on my blog . Please follow me on twitter and facebook . 

Thank you x