Rising demand for foster care triggers new £8.9m cash crisis

Published on Monday 25 August 2008 10:55

A RISE in demand for foster care places in the Capital has led to a fresh cash crisis for the council's biggest department.

The children and families department is on target to spend 8.9 million more than it budgeted for an increase of almost 20 per cent in placements over the past year. It is now likely that savings will be sought in other areas to balance the books.

Around a third of the 300 foster carers employed through Edinburgh City Council are based outside the city boundaries due to a shortage of carers in the Capital, but the increasing demand for services means that the council cannot currently afford to place any extra children in foster care or in special schools outside of the local authority area.

The number of foster placements has risen from 378 in April 2007 to 451 in June this year, putting "budget pressures" on the council.

The children and families department must now make savings to avoid "potentially significant implications for schools and services to vulnerable children".

The number of children in care has been on the increase for the past few years, mainly because of drug and alcohol abuse by parents.

Councillor Marilyne MacLaren, the city's education leader, said: "Edinburgh has unique problems. It has a drug culture deeply embedded in society and there are currently around 6000 drug addicts registered in the city.

"Social workers and health visitors report a growing number of parents involved in some form of substance misuse and this partly accounts for the dramatic increase in child protection referrals over the last four years."

Making savings of 8.9m is the latest financial blow for the department, which was faced with finding 17.7 million as part of the 2008/09 budget.

The council has identified a number of ways to save 6.95m in this latest predicted overspend, which would bring the total down to 1.95m.

These include refinancing schools PPP contracts, axing four jobs in the department through early retirement and voluntary redundancy and reviewing transport services for foster children.

The council admits it still has "some way to go" to address the budget issues, but claims it is a "substantial improvement" on this time last year when it needed to save 14m.

Councillor Ricky Henderson, Labour's new education spokesman, said the current administration needs to get a tighter grip on its finances.

He said: "This February when we were setting the budget, the council's administration told us that everything was now under control.

"Three months into the financial year we find out this is not the case.

"It is deeply worrying that they have this projected overspend.

"Vulnerable children requiring care is not a new issue and the department has to get better at predicting what levels are going to be required to meet these pressures."

Cllr MacLaren added: "The department still faces enormous budget pressures in many areas. The largest of these is due to the increasing demand for frontline services, particularly those related to vulnerable children.

"It is crucial that we find more local foster carers to deal with this increase in demand. The only alternative is to place children with other authorities or the independent sector, which is very costly."