How much has changed in the last year? On the one hand, we have the first multi-year settlement in a decade, the results of the Fair Funding Review, the ongoing process of local government reorganisation, a welcome and necessary decision from central government to take on 90% of SEND deficits and, just a few days before we finished this report, the release of the much-anticipated Schools White Paper. It certainly feels like a lot has happened since this time last year. But the results in our survey tell a slightly different story. Although there have been welcome changes at the margins, the fundamental reality of local government finance – that councils cannot raise enough money to meet service demands – has not gone away. SEND, temporary accommodation, and adults’ and children’s services still make up the vast majority of council expenditure, and these pressures are only continuing to grow […]