Jump in children in care increases council overspend

A surge in the number of children being taken into care over the last year has been a major contributor to a council's children's budget overspend.

Swindon Borough Council's cabinet member for children's services, councillor Paul Dixon, told a specialist children's and adults' overview and scrutiny committee the overall budget for Children's Social Care is currently £61.3m.

However, he said these services were currently projected to overspend by £7.7m.

"This variance is primarily driven by an increase in the number of children being cared for by the local authority and a significant rise in placements within residential care settings," he added.

"The financial pressure is largely attributable to residential provision, where the budget was based on 44 children; however, by the end of September, there were 64 children in residential care," he added.

The weekly cost of a residential place for a child taken into the council's care costs £7,300 per week and £380,000 per year.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), the 20 unplanned placements accumulated to £7.6m in unforeseen costs.

Swindon Borough Council had previously predicted a £27m overspend in its budget for the next financial year, a situation councillors described as "extremely serious".

Despite the overspend, Cllr Dixon said the council were "confident" they should be able to make the "savings necessary" throughout the next financial year.

"We have gone through a rigorous process of assessing all of the demand throughout the service," he added.

They are also optimistic they will not be faced with having to find provision for as many children needing care in the coming years.

"We've worked with out finance team and the data team to look through previous trends to try to make an accurate forecast, and we're not projecting such an increase," said Seth Harris-White, the council's head of corporate parenting.

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