Lead member roundtables for housing, children’s, adults and finance members

Background and context

Background

31ten was commissioned by the LGA, as part of the LGA’s sector support programme for 2024/25, to facilitate bringing together lead members across regions to work together to address significant budget pressures relating to children’s services, adult social care and housing. The project ran from September 2024 to March 2025, through a series of roundtables for lead members for children’s social care (CSC), adult social care (ASC) and housing.

The aim was to create a space for peer-to-peer learning, sharing and increasing understanding of significant budget pressures between service portfolio holders and amongst peers.

The intended outcomes were:

greater understanding of key themes and pressures – including local differences
stronger relationships between officers and members and peers
peer to peer learning and sharing of challenges and solutions.

Approach and delivery

September to October 2024: Design	Regions were identified to participate by the LGA. Research was conducted into national challenges for CSC, ASC and housing, alongside regional challenges for each region that had been identified to participate. A pre-roundtable survey was designed for each set of roundtables and administered regionally, to gather insights from roundtable participants into key local challenges.
November 2024 to March 2025: Delivery	Eight roundtables were delivered: three housing roundtables four CSC roundtables one ASC roundtable. Notes were taken from each roundtable; a regional summary report was produced from each and shared with participants to inform regional learning.
March 2025: Report	The key themes and challenges, solutions and opportunities that were identified in each roundtable were reviewed to identify overarching and national findings for CSC, ASC and housing. Regional differences were also reviewed, alongside overarching opportunities and links between the different topics.

Summary of roundtables delivered

An outline of the sessions that were delivered between November 2024 and March 2025 is highlighted below. The topic for each session was agreed in consultation with regions, with housing and CSC identified as the priority areas of focus for regions.

Approximately 100 lead members participated in the roundtables across the three topic areas.

Housing

Three sessions were delivered:

an in-person session for the South-East region focusing on overarching financial challenges for housing services
a countrywide virtual session focusing on financial challenges relating to Temporary Accommodation (TA)
a countrywide virtual session focusing on financial challenges relating to the Housing Revenue Account (HRA).

Sessions were attended by lead members with responsibility for either housing or finance.

Children's services

Four sessions were delivered:

an in-person session for the West Midlands region
virtual sessions for:
- East of England region
- North West region
- South West region.

Sessions covered challenges relating to CSC, education and support for children with SEND.

Sessions were attended by lead members with responsibility for either children’s services or finance.

Adult social care

One session was delivered:

a virtual session for the South West region.

The session covered challenges relating to older adults, working age adults, and adults transitioning from children’s services to adults services.

The session was attended by lead members with responsibility for either adult’s services or finance.

Overarching themes from roundtables

The three thematic areas highlighted below were identified as key challenges across topic areas.

Increasing need for services

Participants highlighted increased numbers of people with reason to draw on support and care as a key challenge across the three topic areas; with an increasing adult population with care needs, increasing numbers of children coming into care or requiring SEND support, and increasing homelessness, demand for TA and need to complete works on council owned properties identified as the key drivers across housing and social care services. Complexity of need is adding further pressure on service demand.

Increased cost of delivering services

Alongside increasing demand, which is driving up costs, participants highlighted that the cost of delivering services is also increasing. For housing, the cost of buying land, building supplies and tools for maintenance are all increasing. For CSC, placement costs are increasing, and Independent Fostering Agencies are being used more, which cost more than in house foster carers. For ASC, a range of additional costs for providers mean that care costs are increasing. Recruitment and retention challenges are also driving up costs across all three areas.

Difficult financial decisions and challenging savings targets

Regions who participated in the roundtables highlighted the large proportion of council budgets being spent on social care, and provision of TA. Participants reflected on the difficult financial decisions being made as a result; having to reduce non-statutory service provision, use council reserves to cover additional costs, or make cuts in other parts of the council to cover spend in CSC, ASC or housing.

The three thematic areas highlighted below were identified as key to addressing financial challenges across topic areas.

Early intervention and prevention

Children’s roundtable attendees highlighted the need for earlier intervention to prevent children from entering the care system, through parenting programmes, and holistic family support, and to increase access to services for early intervention and prevention for children with SEND. Adults’ roundtable attendees reflected on the importance of services to support adults to remain healthier and independent for longer, to reduce or avoid longer term care costs. Prevention was also a strong theme in housing roundtables, with homelessness prevention and welfare benefits support to maximise resident income and prevent rent arrears highlighted as key.

Changing the narrative to a strengths based one, which promotes independence

This was a key theme in children’s and adults roundtables; the importance of working in a strengths-based way to build on people’s strengths as opposed to focusing on what they are not able to do. For ASC this means increasing promotion of self-directed support and co-producing new, lower cost community-based care options to support people to remain independent in their communities. For children’s services, this means focusing on supporting children with SEND to build independence skills, changing the narrative around the EHCP, and supporting more children to be able to attend a mainstream school.

Using capital funding to build or repurpose existing buildings for accommodation solutions

Lead members who attended roundtables talked about building in house provision as key to meeting resident needs and addressing financial challenges. For CSC, attendees spoke about developing in house residential provision to support children to remain in area and address rising placement costs. For ASC, developing provision to meet the needs of an increasing older population, using data to forecast need. For housing, attendees spoke about developing in house TA solutions to meet increasing needs and reduce reliance on current high-cost accommodation options like hotels and B&Bs.

Key themes from housing roundtables

sketched representation of key themes explained in detail in the below text

Housing key challenges

Increase in service requests Increased costs associated with responding to need Difficult financial decisions

Housing solutions

Addressing temporary accommodation financial pressures Addressing Housing Revenue Account financial pressures

Key themes from children’s roundtables

Children’s social care key challenges

Increase in referrals and level of need Reliance on higher cost types of care Increasing costs and difficult decisions

Children’s social care solutions

Prevention and early intervention Joined up approach Commissioning and sufficiency

Education and SEND key challenges

Increase in requests for support Supply of special school provision not meeting demand High levels of spend to meet needs

Education and SEND solutions

Increasing inclusivity in mainstream schools Culture change around EHCPs Review and redesign home to school transport Special school places

Key themes from adults roundtable

Adult social care key challenges

Growing numbers of people with reason to draw on care and support Increasing provider costs and internal staffing costs Difficulty balancing budgets and delivering savings plans

Adult social care solutions

Prevention and early intervention Review and redesign of services Technology Enabled Care and digital solutions

Future opportunities

Roundtable participants were asked to identify opportunities that they would like to take forwards to continue sector led learning and regional collaboration. Key opportunities highlighted across the roundtables are outlined below.

Regional collaboration	Several opportunities were identified for regional collaboration and joint working to reduce duplication, competition for resources, and maximise access to placements: joint recruitment initiatives for social workers, agreement of incentives and joint promotion across regions joint recruitment initiatives for in house foster carers, working together as a region to promote the role regional commissioning of TA, children’s residential and adults’ residential care regional or national join up on a range of housing challenges; energy efficiency / retrofitting, tradesperson recruitment and landlord licensing schemes.
Sharing what works	Opportunities were identified for ongoing sharing and learning, both regionally and nationally. Examples include: a regular opportunity for councils across the country who have a HRA, to meet and share solutions to addressing financial challenges in an ongoing way sharing evidence and learning between councils on how to make the business case for investing in prevention, including sharing of cost avoidance and return on investment figures.
Bringing together links between service areas	Opportunities were also identified for closer working between housing services, and ASC or CSC. Examples include: working together on the root causes of homelessness working together on TA solutions that meet the needs of families identifying families who are known to housing and ASC or CSC and sharing information better between services.

Regional collaboration

Several opportunities were identified for regional collaboration and joint working to reduce duplication, competition for resources, and maximise access to placements:

joint recruitment initiatives for social workers, agreement of incentives and joint promotion across regions
joint recruitment initiatives for in house foster carers, working together as a region to promote the role
regional commissioning of TA, children’s residential and adults’ residential care
regional or national join up on a range of housing challenges; energy efficiency / retrofitting, tradesperson recruitment and landlord licensing schemes.

Sharing what works

Opportunities were identified for ongoing sharing and learning, both regionally and nationally. Examples include:

a regular opportunity for councils across the country who have a HRA, to meet and share solutions to addressing financial challenges in an ongoing way
sharing evidence and learning between councils on how to make the business case for investing in prevention, including sharing of cost avoidance and return on investment figures.

Bringing together links between service areas

Opportunities were also identified for closer working between housing services, and ASC or CSC. Examples include:

working together on the root causes of homelessness
working together on TA solutions that meet the needs of families
identifying families who are known to housing and ASC or CSC and sharing information better between services.

Differences between regions

Some clear common challenges emerged from the roundtables, alongside common solutions that were being delivered across the country. However, there were some regional differences in the challenges faced, which are outlined below. As only one region participated in the ASC roundtable offer, it has not been possible to identify regional differences in this topic.

Challenges specific to regional geography and demographics	Regions with larger, more rural areas, like the South-West highlighted specific challenges to delivering social care services, for example, disproportionately high costs for home to school transport due to the number of long-distance journeys required. Rural regions with a larger geographical footprint also highlighted challenges to implementing regional solutions like joint commissioning of children’s residential care provision or TA across large areas, reflecting that schemes that have worked well in London or Greater Manchester wouldn’t be replicable. The high cost of living in areas in some regions (for example, East of England and South-West regions) was highlighted as a challenge to social worker recruitment and retention, which wasn’t as significant a challenge in other regions. London Boroughs highlighted challenges to building new homes in urban areas due to lack of useable land, and disproportionately high costs for land and materials. Coastal areas (for example, Thanet in the South-East and North Norfolk in the East of England) highlighted challenges around housing affordability due to the post-Covid influx of residents on higher incomes from areas like London.
Differences in financial challenges between regions	The most pressing children’s challenges for the South-West region were predominately related to SEND and education, whereas other regions identified their most pressing challenges as relating to social care as well as SEND or education. For example, the West Midlands, East of England and North-West regions identified specific challenges around use of Independent Fostering Agencies because of challenges recruiting in house foster carers. This was not highlighted as a key challenge in the South-West. London boroughs identified specific HRA challenges that related to the volume of cladding works due to high numbers of high-rise buildings. The volume of demand for TA was also identified as a significant challenge for London Boroughs compared with other areas. The lack of funding certainty and amendments in funding formulas made it hard for areas to plan effectively; this was highlighted specifically in rural areas which were identified as being disproportionately affected.

Challenges specific to regional geography and demographics

Regions with larger, more rural areas, like the South-West highlighted specific challenges to delivering social care services, for example, disproportionately high costs for home to school transport due to the number of long-distance journeys required.
Rural regions with a larger geographical footprint also highlighted challenges to implementing regional solutions like joint commissioning of children’s residential care provision or TA across large areas, reflecting that schemes that have worked well in London or Greater Manchester wouldn’t be replicable.
The high cost of living in areas in some regions (for example, East of England and South-West regions) was highlighted as a challenge to social worker recruitment and retention, which wasn’t as significant a challenge in other regions.
London Boroughs highlighted challenges to building new homes in urban areas due to lack of useable land, and disproportionately high costs for land and materials.
Coastal areas (for example, Thanet in the South-East and North Norfolk in the East of England) highlighted challenges around housing affordability due to the post-Covid influx of residents on higher incomes from areas like London.

Differences in financial challenges between regions

The most pressing children’s challenges for the South-West region were predominately related to SEND and education, whereas other regions identified their most pressing challenges as relating to social care as well as SEND or education. For example, the West Midlands, East of England and North-West regions identified specific challenges around use of Independent Fostering Agencies because of challenges recruiting in house foster carers. This was not highlighted as a key challenge in the South-West.
London boroughs identified specific HRA challenges that related to the volume of cladding works due to high numbers of high-rise buildings. The volume of demand for TA was also identified as a significant challenge for London Boroughs compared with other areas.
The lack of funding certainty and amendments in funding formulas made it hard for areas to plan effectively; this was highlighted specifically in rural areas which were identified as being disproportionately affected.

Connections between topic areas

Through the roundtables, we have identified some crossover between ASC, CSC and housing financial challenges, which highlight opportunities for joined up working between service areas. These are outlined below.

Housing costs	The increasing costs of housing are impacting on the ability of ASC and CSC services to develop, procure and offer housing solutions with care and support, and to recruit and retain care staff. This is having an impact on ASC and CSC budgets through spend on agency staff, higher placement costs, and challenges in developing in-house accommodation-based support. There is an opportunity for join up between housing and social care to identify cost effective housing solutions.
Causes of TA demand	Some of the root causes for the increase in TA demand may have links to ASC and CSC services. For example, adult homelessness because of unmet mental health needs, or families with complex needs who could be supported to maintain a stable home through early help support from CSC. There is an opportunity for services to work together to identify families and adults at risk and deliver joint interventions to support people to maintain tenancies.
Transitions	Some of the pressure on ASC services and budgets has been identified as coming from children with complex needs transitioning into adult services. There is an opportunity for more joined up transitions planning between CSC and ASC, and work to build independence skills for children early in the transition process.