CYP(3)-CB 011

Children and Young People Committee

Inquiry into Children’s Budgeting

Response from Blaenau Gwent Response

To what extent do you think that budget setting and allocating resources for children and young people is transparent at national and/or local level?

At a national level the budget setting and allocation of resources for children is not a transparent process.  

Locally the Assembly allocate funds to Local Authorities (LA) on a formula basis using factors such as population and deprivation statistics, the majority of funds are unhypothecated i.e. they are not ring fenced for any particular service or service user group such as Children and Young People.  The unhypothecated nature of LA’s funds makes it very difficult to track a LA budget allocation to Children’s Services from the Assembly’s budget settlement.

Budget allocation is often determined nationally and based on national strategic priorities. These may be different priorities that those which were identified in the Local Authority’s Children’s Plan.  

To what extent do you think children and young people are taken into account in budget setting and allocation decisions in policy areas not obviously related to them e.g. transport, housing, planning?

We have no evidence that children and young people are taken into account in budget setting and allocation decisions in policy areas.

To what extent do you think that departments within national and local government are joined-up in terms of what they spend on children and young people? Do you have examples where this is or isn’t happening?

Whilst at a national level there is a willingness to work together to improve services for children,  there is evidence that policy development and grant funding is being driven by individual departments within the WAG.  Children and young people services would benefit from a more co-ordinated strategic approach, a recent example of this is detailed below:-

Two policy initiatives are being developed with a focus upon parenting, families and  substance misuse, one being Strengthening Families, the other being  Stronger Families, both of these strategies have similar target groups however they are being managed by different departments within WAG and have timescales and grant conditions.

Another example would be the limited consultation on the implementation of the Public Law Outline and the transfer of responsibility and resources to local authorities to fund applications to court for care proceedings.

Do you think there is enough forward planning about how funding is allocated to deliver policies and programmes for children and young people? Please give examples.

It has been well documented that the short-term nature of specific grants does not allow for medium / long term strategic planning in relation to service planning and delivery.

Do you have any examples of cost benefit analysis being undertaken on policies affecting children and young people (i.e. assessing the costs and benefits of the impacts of an intervention or policy)? Is this something you would like to see done more routinely and made more transparent?

We would welcome allocation of funds that had been evaluated in terms of a cost and benefit analysis.   Whilst the transparency of such an analysis would  be welcomed, any the model should be flexible enough so that it could be adapted depending on the outcomes required from the policy initiative.

Tackling child poverty is seen as a high political priority in Wales. To what extent do you think budget allocations reflect this high priority? To what extent is budget allocation and actual spend in Wales 'pro-poor’?

The budget setting process at present doesn’t lend itself to links with national policies. Budgets are allocated to LA’s on a formula basis linked to children numbers and levels of deprivation; however these are not necessarily linked to child poverty.  

To what extent do you think children and young people are enabled to participate in budget setting and allocation decisions at a national and/or local level, and do you have any examples of this happening?

There is very little evidence of children and young people being enabled to participate in budget setting and allocation decisions.

What would you like to see change to make it easier to monitor spend on children and young people?

Any system should focus upon "outcomes” that are achieved for children and young people. However, we would express caution in implementing any system that took resources away  from frontline services delivery.

Are there any further comments you'd like to make about children’s budgeting?

No further comments