News

The government has dismissed MPs' concerns about the level of funding available to implement the Every Child Matters agenda - despite fresh calls from local government leaders to reconsider resource implications.

Responding to the Education and Skills select committee's report on progress in implementing the children's services reforms, the government insisted last month that "substantial resources" were already available.

Its only concession was a commitment to review in the light of responses to the Children's Workforce Strategy consultation the funding available for the development of the entire children's workforce - which it currently believes is sufficient.

The news came as a survey of council funds revealed that overspends in children's services were responsible for almost three-quarters of a £1.5bn black hole in last year's local government finances.

The Association of Directors of Social Services, the Local Government Association, and the Directors of Education and Children's Services Directors also warned in their response to draft guidance on new safeguarding arrangements that assumptions that implementing it would be cost neutral were wrong.

"The government must give further consideration to the resource implications for all organisations working within the guidance," they said.