Cambridgeshire County Council considers £3m food voucher scheme

Budget proposals will also include investment in increasing the number of children in care placements in Cambridgeshire

Cambridgeshire County Council is considering spending £3m to continue providing holiday food vouchers.

The budget proposal - part of a package aimed at helping families - will be voted on in February.

The majority of the council's Children and Young People's Committee agreed to the scheme on Tuesday.

It also proposing to spend an extra £320,000 addressing children's mental health which it said had "worsened" since the Covid pandemic.

The funding could be used to employ trained specialists to work with schools to design and deliver programmes working with children and young people, teachers and parents with interventions that are known to address anxiety.

A further £12.7m is set to be allocated to reflect demand and inflation pressures, including the level of complex cases.

The budget will include investment in increasing the number of children in care placements in Cambridgeshire.

Final recommendations on the budget proposals will be made at a council meeting on 30 January, before a debate to agree the final budget on 13 February.

Cambridgeshire County Council's estimated budget gap for 2024-2025 has increased from £16m to £23m

Labour councillor Bryony Goodliffe said the budget would put "children and young people at the very heart of what we do, while at the same time creating a greener, fairer and more caring Cambridgeshire."

She said: "Next year will be a challenging period, but I believe we can meet those challenges alongside doing the best we can for our young people."

In October, the authority's Liberal Democrat leader Lucy Nethsinga said council tax was likely to rise by 5% in 2024-25 amid a £23m funding gap.

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