I looked for coverage about this yesterday. I assumed the Times would find space for a short article about it. Nothing.
Nothing in today either so I wondered whether the journalist had got it wrong.
Nope. Just doesnt appear to have been covered. Although they had space for another article about WASPI which appears to have been a small re-write from yesterdays article.
But the original article posted by Duncin wasn't wrong - this was announced yesterday.
www.gov.uk/government/news/69-billion-to-support-councils-and-help-deliver-plan-for-change
£69 billion of funding will be injected into council budgets across England to help them drive forward the government’s Plan for Change through investment and reform and to fix the foundations of local government, ministers have announced today (Wednesday 18th December).
The provisional Local Government Finance Settlement will provide £69 billion for councils across the country, a real-terms increase of 3.5% from 2024-25, which includes a new emergency £600 million Recovery Grant, offering better value for money through the repurposing of grants to help support councils most in need and maximise every penny of public spending to ensure it delivers for working people.
And £3.7 billion of funding will be made available to social care authorities to support adult and children’s services through the Settlement. This includes £880 million for the Social Care Grant – an increase of £200 million compared to what was indicated last month, taking its total to £5.9 billion – which will support councils to deliver care for adults and children in their communities, helping to reduce pressure on the NHS.
No council will see a reduction in Core Spending Power. Places with a significant rural population will on average receive around a 5% increase in their Core Spending Power to ensure rural communities have the support they need. We are maintaining the previous government’s referendum threshold for council tax , which will be maintained at 3% with 2% for the adult social care precept to protect local taxpayers
And laying the groundwork for wider children’s social care reform, today an increase to the new Children’s Social Care Prevention Grant has been confirmed, which will be uplifted from £250m to £263 million at the final Settlement early next year. This is a step towards ensuring children get the best start to life as set out in our Plan for Change. This will fund a national rollout of Family Help, a preventative service at the core of children’s social care reform, and will make funding available to help ensure that children can stay with their families or in safe loving homes wherever possible.