£1.8m overspend in children’s services

ONGOING issues in a children’s services department have seen an authority overspend its budget by almost £1.8m.

A report to Anglesey council’s executive confirmed the authority will have to dip into its £6m reserves to close the accounts for the 2017/18 financial year.

As the authority tries to overhaul its under-fire children’s services department, it was the main contributor to the general overspend, going over budget by £1.78m.

The council has tried to improve the service since a Care Inspectorate Wales inspection in March 2017 found care and support for vulnerable children “must be improved” and the service lacked enough staff to deal with several issues. It also found that, while Anglesey council was responsive when a child might be at risk, “referral information from partners was poor”.

The education department was also over, by £890,000 including £329,000 on school transport; adult services was over by £215,000, and council business was over by £181,000.

But, with most council departments ending the year with money left over, the general overspend was £1.762m.

The report noted: “Children’s services are going through a restructuring process where the focus will be on early intervention and intensive intervention.The service has seen a 72% increase in children subject to full care orders over the last 3 years.

“The average annual cost for a residential placement is £220k.”

Opposition member Cllr Aled Morris Jones described the figures, including the need for more agency staff costing the council £39 an hour, as “alarming”.

But deputy chief executive Dr Caroline Turner said “great strides” had been made over the past 18 months, with efforts under way to recruit permanent staff and sickness rates cut.

Council leader Llinos Medi said: “This is the scale of the challenge we face, but we have to try and deal with this the best we can.”