Council overspend linked to cost of kids in care

The number of children in care has fallen, but costs have risen, the council reports

Staffordshire County Council overspent by nearly £3.8m last year and cited rising costs for children's services as a major factor, pledging to review its care system.

The total spending on services was £700.4m and a number of portfolios, including health, infrastructure, skills and the economy ending under budget.

But children's services overspent by £9.7m and the authority said a large part of that was due to the costs of children in care, despite a fall in the number of children it looks after.

It said it would be monitoring the thresholds for children entering care and reviewing all existing children in care.

The council also spent £2.3m more than it had planned on education, partly as a result of increasing transport costs for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities.

It said it would review use of these services too.

"Like many authorities we are continuing to see increasing costs both to support the most vulnerable children in our care and in other areas of children’s services," the authority stated.

Despite this, it said it was on course to deliver a balanced budget this year and for the following five years.

The council was looking after 1,319 children in care at the end of March, which was the lowest the figure had been all year, from a high in July 2023.

It said rising inflation had contributed to overspend.

Councils across England have forecasted massive shortfall in budgets for supporting children with special educational needs.

The BBC has found councils face a deficit of almost £1bn in schools’ funds for these pupils.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.

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