Creative solution needed to fix overbudget family services

Inspectors made the fourth monitoring visit at the beginning of October

There are calls for a "creative solution" to fix Gloucestershire's children and family services, which is currently £11m over budget.

Liberal Democrat group leader, Ben Evans, said the council needed to invest in preventative services to stop costs from spiralling.

Cabinet member Stephen Davies said the council already had a strategy.

"We have both a short-term plan to address the overspend and a longer term strategy to reduce costs," he said.

Mr Evans, who has worked in youth work sector for more than a decade, said the increase in children needing help from the council was directly linked to a decrease in early intervention services such as youth workers.

He said officers had warned decision makers of the financial consequences of stripping back services in 2010.

Councillor Ben Evans, group leader for the Liberal Democrats

"We were clearly warning that if you take away early intervention and prevention, in 10 years time you are going to have a budget that runs out of control," he said.

The Churchdown councillor said the authority should look at "creative" ways to bolster the service, such as match-funding and more philanthropic models.

Mr Evans said: "There's a huge area of social investment which is growing in the UK, which in Gloucestershire we haven't tapped in to.

"For example there are wealthy people who want a financial return but also a social return for investments.

"So if our council was showing real leadership, they'd be saying we're going to put 'X' amount of money in, and we're trying to get it matched by people, and that's the kind of creativity we need."

Latest figures show there are 872 children in care in Gloucestershire of whom 491 have some form of expensive out-of-county care.

The council said the overspend was "partly due to the increasing numbers of children in care and the cost of placements," both of which it described as "national issues".

Gloucestershire County Council's Children's Services are ranked as requires improvement by regulator Ofsted after previously being classed as 'inadequate' for five years.

'Particularly difficult cases'

According to the government 45% of local authorities in England either have an inadequate or requires improvement Ofsted rating.

Trevor Doughty is the former director of Cornwall Council's Children's Services which was rated as outstanding by Ofsted.

He oversaw its move from inadequate to outstanding within eight years and said: "One thing we didn't do in Cornwall when we were under all kinds of financial pressure is take money out of early help.

"But it does take time, and there are examples of authorities who have done it quickly and superficially and then are back being 'inadequate' in a couple of years.

"What I was always very insistent on is that it was about getting the foundations right, which can take a while and I'm talking years rather than months."

Gloucestershire County Council said it had responded to some "particularly difficult cases" in 2022 that were very costly.

Stephen Davies, the cabinet member responsible for children's safeguarding and early years, said: "Our budget is based on a prediction of how many children will need our help, and what sort of help they will need so it can change throughout the year."

He said the long-term strategy included developing children's home support to avoid entry into care, and developing their own placement capacity with providers to help control costs.

"Our priority remains ensuring children across the county get the care and support they need," he added.

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