Introduction

The formation of the Conservative– Liberal Democrat Coalition government after the 2010 election created a great deal of uncertainty regarding the future direction of children's services policy. On the one hand, it was clear that, following the global financial crisis, reducing the UK's budget deficit would have major implications for spending on public services. Yet, party leaders continued to emphasise the importance of social policy. Cameron claimed that he was still committed to improving social justice, and the Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, had campaigned to improve social mobility during the election. In 2016, after taking over from Cameron following the victory for the Leave campaign in the EU referendum, Theresa May (2016) promised to ‘make Britain a country that works not for a privileged few, but for every one of us’. Thus, this chapter focuses on the interest and involvement of the Coalition and Conservative governments’ leaders in the development of social policies affecting children and families, complimenting the discussion of Blair's and Brown's involvement in Chapter 2.

The first section of the chapter considers the approach taken to tackling the UK's budget deficit. The way in which spending reductions were tied to government efforts to restructure public services is discussed in the second section. The third section considers the extent to which improving social justice and/or social mobility remained a priority under the leadership of Cameron and Clegg. The influence of the Treasury over welfare reform is discussed in the fourth section. Policy developments since May succeeded Cameron as Prime Minister in 2016 are discussed in the final section.