Source · Select Committees · Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee
Recommendation 4
4
Deferred
Undertake a review of local government statutory service requirements by the end of 2025.
Recommendation
The Government must undertake a review of which local government services should, and which should not, be statutory requirements. This review must begin by the end of calendar year 2025 and go to consultation by June 2026. If changes are needed to legislation to bring statutory requirements in line with the review, these must be made before the end of this Parliament. (Recommendation, Paragraph 23) Services under strain
Government Response Summary
The government's response focused on ongoing and planned reforms for specific services like children's social care, SEND, and homelessness, including funding commitments and upcoming strategies/white papers, rather than committing to a review of which services should be statutory requirements.
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government
Deferred
21. Reform and prevention are critical if we are to turn around the cycle of system failure and cost escalation. This Government is reforming services, including children’s social care, homelessness and rough sleeping, special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), and adult social care services. 22. At the 2025 Spending Review, the Government announced an ambitious programme of public service reform, focused on prevention to improve outcomes for local residents. Specifically, the Spending Review: • Made available £2 billion over the next three-years for children’s social care reform. This includes over £500 million in new investment to build on the delivery of key reforms. • Allows for an increase of over £4 billion for adult social care in 2028–29 compared to 2025–26. • Protects the record level of investment (£1 billion in 2025–26) to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping for the next three years and provides £100 million, including from the Transformation Fund, to fund increased homelessness prevention activity. • Increased funding for schools by over £4.7 billion per year by 2028–29, compared to the 2025–26 core schools budget published at Spring Statement 2025. Accounting for the funding recently announced for pay, the core schools budget will increase by £4.2 billion by 2028–29. 23. Alongside this investment, we are resetting the relationship between central and local government through simplified funding arrangements, supported by clear outcomes. The simplification of grant funding will be supported by a shift towards outcomes-based accountability for local authorities. We will set out and measure progress on the key services and outcomes we want to work with local government to deliver for local people and places. 24. The Government is committed to transforming adult social care and making tangible improvements in the short-term. The government has introduced legislation to establish the first-ever Fair Pay Agreement for adult social care professionals to ensure care workers are fairly rewarded for the work they do. The Fair Pay Agreement aims to resolve the recruitment and retention crisis in the profession, alleviating pressures on public services in the longer term. The government remains committed to wider reform of the adult social care system and to build a National Care Service. The Government will consider recommendations from Phase 1 of the independent commission into adult social care, led by Baroness Casey, when she reports in 2026. 25. The Government is committed to delivering children’s social care reform and breaking the cycle of late intervention so that every child is safe and can thrive. Funding announced at the Spending Review provides the platform for this and also includes increased investment in family help and child protection; extending the new Kinship Financial Allowance and enabling implementation of the social care commitments in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. The Government will set out further detail in due course on implementing children’s social care reform. 26. Alongside the commitments laid out as part of the Spending Review, the Government is taking forward service reforms and will set out more details in due course. Details of the Government’s intended approach to SEND reform will be set out by the Department for Education in a Schools White Paper in the coming months, including for early years and post-16. We are committed to improving inclusivity in mainstream schools and ensuring special schools cater to the most complex needs. We are also actively working with parents and experts on solutions, including more early intervention to prevent needs from escalating. 27. The Government is also developing a homelessness strategy to be published later this year. We are committed to moving away from a system focussed on crisis response, taking a holistic approach to preventing homelessness in the first place and driving better value for money interventions, and the strategy will set out how we intend to do this in more detail.