The Communities and Local Government Department has made a formal announcement about the 16 ‘community budget’ areas first revealed in Wednesday’s spending review.
“From April next year this first phase of 16 areas covering 31 councils and their partners will be put in charge of ‘Community Budgets’ that pool various strands of Whitehall funding into a single ‘local bank account’ for tackling social problems around families with complex needs.
Community Budgets, which the Government intends to roll out nationally by 2013-14, will put councils and their partners in the driving seat by pooling funds for tackling these families’ needs into one budget so communities can develop local solutions to local problems.”
The sixteen areas are:
This first phase will take place alongside cross-Departmental work with a further 20 areas “to help push forward local flexibility and to address barriers”. There will also be a national champion for community budgeting for families with complex needs who will support this undertaking.
Cities with elected mayors will also have community budgets available, and from April 2013 the Department intends to make community budgets available to all areas.
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