Spring budget: revolutionary child measures announced

Today, Jeremy Hunt announced the long-awaited spring budget in an attempt to boost the country’s economic growth – the heart of his discussion was headlined with assisting with childcare needs.

Families across the UK have been struggling with the rising costs of living for the past year. As energy, fuel and food prices have rocketed, thousands of households have found themselves without essentials and in the worst case, have been forced to leave their home.

Research revealed today by cross-party group, London Councils, displays boroughs in London have warned at least one child in every London classroom is homeless due to the current cost-of-living crisis.

The latest figures gathered by the cross-party group suggest there are now 166,000 homeless Londoners – equivalent to the entire population of a city such as Oxford – living in temporary accommodation arranged by their local borough.

Against this backdrop, the homelessness total includes 81,000 children, meaning one in every 23 children in the capital is homeless.

However, in an effort to help families/parents make extra money to be able to afford to live, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, has promised up to 30 hours a week of free childcare for eligible households in England with children as young as nine months, instead of three and four-year-olds under the current policy. 

The phased policy, which is due to be introduced in September 2025, will be worth up to £6,500 a year for working families.

Alongside this, the Chancellor also announced an expansion in wrap-around care at the start and finish of the school day for parents with older children.

Delivering his second major fiscal statement as Chancellor, Mr Hunt said: ‘In the face of enormous challenges I report today on a British economy which is proving the doubter wrong.’

Mr Hunt has said the Office for Budget Responsibility now predicts the UK will avoid a technical recession – two straight quarters of falling GDP – and that inflation will more than halve by the end of this year. 

However, despite Mr Hunt attempting to relieve financial pressures for families, Kari Gersteimer, CEO of Access Social Care, has claimed the government have failed to consider the adult social care sector.

Ms Gerstheimer said: ‘The government has pledged to focus their attention on growth. Yet once more, adult social care, a sector which provides £50bn to the economy each year, has been left without.

‘There was no mention of the financing needed to ensure that people have access to the care they so desperately need, or support for the carers providing these vital services.

‘Too many of the working age disabled people, older people and carers Access Social care support are choosing between food, heating and social care – people with social care needs are not getting the support they need to live in dignity.’

Similarly to Ms Gersteimer’s outrage at the government for failing to help vulnerable people in need, Max Parmentier, Co-Founder and CEO of birdie, has also raged against authorities for failing to consider the NHS.

He said: ‘Despite hope for meaningful reform, the spring budget has completely ignored the NHS and adult social care crisis, making it clear impactful change is unlikely to happen any time soon. In short, the cavalry isn’t coming.

‘So, the health and social care sectors must now ignite true reform together. We must start by accelerating the discharge process through increased communication between the health and social care sectors to leverage local care capacity.

‘Secondly, we must take prevention seriously, with the NHS spearheading prevention initiatives and research at the Transformation Directorate level.

‘And thirdly, we need to make the standardisation of data across health and social care a priority to ensure effective communication between the two sectors.’

Image: Jordan Rowland and Huy Phan