Chancellor Philip Hammond delivered his first Budget yesterday, in which he announced Tax-Free Childcare will start next month, along with measures to help small businesses facing increases to business rates, a rise in National Insurance contributions for self-employed workers to bring them in line with employees.
The End Child Poverty Coalition and The Children’s Society said the Chancellor had done little to help families facing a four-year freeze in child benefit and rising inflation.
They both cited figures released by the Office for Budget Responsibility that show inflation is set to rise to 3.9 per cent this year, while they say child benefit has increased by just 40p since 2010.
Sam Royston, chair of the End Child Poverty coalition, said, ‘We are extremely disappointed that the Chancellor has not recognised or addressed the impact that rising inflation is having on family budgets. End Child Poverty research shows that the freeze to children’s benefits will mean that low-income families are up to £2,800 a year worse off by 2020. Yet instead of using the Budget to help disadvantaged families, the Chancellor has left them out in the cold.
‘Freezing benefits may not reduce the amount of cash in people’s pockets, but cash isn’t what matters - what matters is what people can to afford to buy with it. Families on a low income simply cannot afford to pay the increased prices of food, fuel and travel when there is no increase to the pounds in their pocket.
‘Poverty has a massive impact on children’s lives. It leads to a poorer childhood and worse outcomes throughout life. Child poverty also has a cost to society as a whole – estimated to be at least £29 billion a year. The Government must address this issue of rising child poverty.’
The Children’s Society echoed his comments, arguing that the Chancellor ‘missed a crucial opportunity to improve the lives of millions of children’.
Schools
As trailed earlier in the week, the Chancellor announced an extension of the free schools programme with investment of £320 million in this Parliament to fund up to 140 schools.
There would also be free transport for children who receive free school meals to attend their nearest selective school.
Speaking in the House of Commons Philip Hammond said, ‘We recognise that for many parents the cost of travel can be a barrier to exercising that choice.
‘Pupils typically travel three times as far to attend selective schools, so we will extend free school transport to include all children on free school meals who attend a selective school. Because we are resolved that talent alone should determine the opportunities a child enjoys.’
Charities and unions, including the National Children’s Bureau and Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), criticised the Chancellor for focusing on academically gifted pupils rather than all children.
Amanda Batten, chief executive of Contact a Family, said, 'Against a backdrop of cuts to school transport for disabled children, we are concerned that the Government has prioritised children in grammar schools for free school transport.
'Contact a Family’s ongoing inquiry into school transport for disabled children has found that families are increasingly being asked to pay for their disabled child to travel to school. Many are paying over £500 a month, when they can ill afford to do so.'
'Disabled children are far less likely to attend selective schools than other children – around 4 per cent of children at grammar schools have SEN, compared to 14 per cent in mainstream schools.'
Dr Mary Bousted, general secretary of the ATL, said, ‘Putting more money into free schools and grammar schools will not benefit most children and is a costly way of providing extra school places.
'Parents and children will be deeply disappointed that the Chancellor has not taken this opportunity to put more money into the National Funding Formula, which would be the best way to improve social mobility and ensure all children get a good education.
‘Despite the Government’s claims of many "winners" from its proposed National Funding Formula, around 98 per cent of schools face real-terms cuts in funding for every pupil. Headteachers are already having to increase class sizes, which is taking teachers’ workloads to breaking point and diminishing the amount of attention for each pupil. Schools do not have enough in their budgets to provide enough text books, IT equipment, and extra-curricular activities and are being forced to look at cutting staff.'
The union also expressed disappointment at an absence of measures in the Budget to address the ‘crisis in teacher recruitment and retention’.
Similarly, Unison said there was nothing in the Budget to relieve the ‘ongoing pay pain’ for teaching assistants and others in the public sector.
The Education Policy Institute raised concern that the introduction of grammar schools could undermine existing high performing schools.
Jo Hutchinson, director for social mobility at the EPI, said, ‘The Prime Minister and other Ministers often quote the increase in the number of good and outstanding schools, however the evidence shows grammar schools could put that very improvement at risk.
‘Our analysis shows that there are very few areas in which you could introduce grammar schools without undermining existing high performing schools or increasing the attainment penalty for those that miss out.’
Social Care
The Chancellor announced an additional £2 billion for councils in England over the next three years to spend on adult care services, however the charity Action for Children argues that the crisis in social care is not only affecting adults, but also children. It called on the Government to 'act now' to ‘avert a future crisis in children’s services.’
Director of policy and campaigns at Action for Children, Kate Mulley, said, ‘The rate and number of both children in need and looked-after children has increased since 2010. At the same time total spending on children’s services decreased by almost 10 per cent. Councils have worked hard to maintain statutory services for crisis intervention but have had to reduce funding to address problems early.
‘Reductions in council budgets make it impossible to maintain the current levels of family support services in communities across the country, which means that the needs of disadvantaged children and young people are being ignored. We are calling on the government to act now to avert a future crisis in children’s services.’