Philip Atkins
The Chancellor’s Spending Review – what it means for Staffordshire
LAST week we had the Chancellor’s Spending Review which is always an important announcement for public sector organisations including councils and gives us an idea of the funding we’ll be getting next year.
Extra spending to support children with special educational needs and disabilities, extra funding to tackle climate change and more help towards meeting growing social care costs were amongst the headlines.
I’ve spoken about the pressures we face around adult social care and our ageing population many times before, so it was encouraging to see that councils will get £1.5bn next year.
The £700m spending boost for children with special educational needs and disabilities is also particularly welcome and is another important part of our work which has been under pressure in recent years.
And, only last month, in my column I talked about how the county council has declared a climate emergency and how we are working to tackle this issue.
Again, it was good to see the Government recognise that we all need to do our bit with a promise of an extra £432m for national initiatives.
While we welcome the funding, as with all spending reviews and budgets the devil will be in the detail and it will take time to work out exactly what it means for the council, to you our residents and to schools and businesses.
Over the years we have successfully managed some real financial pressures by taking early proactive measures but we continue to be clear to Government that the challenge of meeting increasing costs, especially for care remain huge. The funding announced will hopefully go some way to easing these pressures in the short-term but we’ll continue to lobby for a long-term sustainable funding solution.
These remain uncertain times nationally, but as a county council our focus is on ensuring we are able to support the most vulnerable with the money available, empowering healthier and more independent communities, creating better jobs, attracting investment and growing our economy for the benefit of Staffordshire families and businesses.