‘Scary’ overspend in Walsall children’s services budget due to rising care costs

Bosses said they will never turn a child in need away due to money issues and added that a range of measures are being put in place to tackle the overspend.

Members of the authority’s children’s services overview and scrutiny committee were told the number of youngsters coming into care was reducing but the bill was rising due to a number of reasons.

These included a lack of placements in the borough, an increasing number of children with complex needs and rising charges for residential places – particularly outside of the borough.

Some of the efforts to reduce costs include the development of two new children’s homes in Walsall – the first of which is hoped to be open within months.

A campaign to recruit more foster carers within the borough is also ongoing as well as reducing the use of agency staff.

Councillor Stacie Elson, portfolio holder for children’s services, said: “It is scary, the budget overspend. However with a service like this it is always something we are going to have.

“We’re never going to turn a child away because of money. I can say the team are putting in a lot of work to try to reduce the budget overspend.

“However that is not going to become apparent at the moment because to reduce it we’re going to have a spend a bit.

“For example, we’re doing the foster recruitment, looking at new children’s homes. All this comes at a cost to get a bit back.

“I can reassure the committee I am more than happy with what the team is doing to reduce the budget.”

Colleen Male, children’s services director of social care, added: “We’re taking a range of mitigating actions to reduce the overspend.

“We are seeing success in being able to reduce the number of children coming into local authority care or making sure when they do come into care they are there for a shorter period.

“The biggest issue for us is placement sufficiency. That’s the same for all councils – it’s a national issue.

“There is a concerted effort across the whole of the council to increase the number of foster carers that we have.

“We know children do better in families and we have a number in residential care who would benefit from foster placements if we can find them for them.

“Our next priority will be the opening of the two new children’s homes. The registration for one of those is actively going through now so hopefully that will be open this side of the summer.”