Damning report on kids’ home sparks fears on funding
CONCERNS have been raised over the funding of children’s services after a council-run home received a damning inspection report.
Ofsted found at-risk youngsters were regularly going missing from the facility in Rochdale and has stopped it from taking on any more children until the necessary improvements are made.
The home cannot be named for safeguarding reasons.
Heywood and Middleton MP Chris Clarkson has since called on the authority to ‘work night and day’ to ensure the borough’s most vulnerable children are kept safe.
The issue was also raised by councillors at a budget scrutiny committee meeting this week.
Referring to the report, Coun Liam O’Rourke asked what flexibility there was within the proposed 2021/22 budget to make extra funds available for children’s social care.
He added: “Obviously that was quite a damning report last week – have there been any conversations since to make sure extra resources are going to children’s services on top of what was already planned? I’m assuming the contents of that report were not planned – clearly not – and therefore extra resources are going to be needed since that report to address those concerns. We need to make it very clear to the public out there that we are taking urgent action and make sure the resources are there to back it.”
Chief finance officer Julie Murphy said the council was heading into the third year of a five-year strategy putting an additional £6.8m into the children’s services budget – £2.8m of which will remain beyond 2024.
Ms Murphy told the meeting that, while ‘some emergency meetings’ had taken place in wake of the report, she was not aware of any requests for additional funding. But if there was a request of such, “of course that would have to be funded to get us to the place we need to be,” she added.
Coun Michael Holly posed a question about the adequate children’s services funding, noting that, while it was on course for a surplus, it had repeatedly overspent in recent years.
Ms Murphy drew members’ attention to a proposal in the budget to set up a reserve for ‘demand-led services’ and the economy. She added: “We don’t know if children’s services pressures will start to increase next year but we have provided some money in a reserve if that’s the outcome.”
Following the report, Rochdale council accepted standards at the home were ‘unacceptable’ but said it was working to make improvements.