It’s not often that we get some unexpectedly good news on funding, but that did come through in the middle of last week. After a strong campaign led by the County Councils Network, in which Kent County Council played its part and worked closely with our Members of Parliament, the government made an unusually late amendment to the Local Government Finance Settlement. This gave an additional £600 million to the sector, of which £500 million goes to councils (like KCC) with responsibility for children’s services and adult social care.
We do not yet know our precise allocation, but estimate it (on the basis of past methods of distributing the social care grant, which is the approach that will be used) to be somewhat over £10 million, probably between £11.5 and £12.8 million.
This is, as I have said, welcome but not a game changer. It has to be seen in the context of our £1.3 billion budget and the £118 million savings gap with which we started our budget process. It does not address the underlying pressures that are driving up local authority spend, and the outlook for the next few years (whoever forms a government after the election) suggests that funding settlements or remain tight.The cavalry is not coming over the hill. 
Nonetheless, after a disappointing outcome to the Autumn Statement and the provisional Local Government Finance Settlement, it is a welcome recognition of at least some of the pressures local government is experiencing. And it all helps.
You can find our statement here.
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