Disabled children risk going into care
Council chiefs have warned of workforce challenges
Children with disabilities risk being taken into care because of workforce challenges being experienced by support providers.
The shocking admission was made by Stirling Council officials at a meeting of the council’s finance, economy and corporate support committee last week.
However, the officers added that they were working hard to avoid any such scenario.
Councillors were told that, in the case of Children with Disabilities, while there were no budgetary pressures to report, this was as a result of “a continued restricted service from providers, due to their challenges with workforce recruitment”.
An agenda report provided to councillors stated: “Service action [on Children With Disabilities] is being taken to reduce current waiting lists and it is planned that this will be addressed over the next year.
“This will result in an increased cost for care packages in the future.
“This is an area of increasing demand but limitations on service does risk further escalation that children may be taken into care as a result of the limited service at present.”
The council’s chief social work officer Marie Valente said: “We currently cannot get full care packages for some of our children with disabilities and that’s linked to some of the third sector organisations that we commission – but they are working on that.
“We are seeing improvement and will continue to monitor that so hopefully over time we can fulfill the care packages people are asking for.
“Some of the care packages are not being met, although not all of them.
“We do endeavour to ensure all families get some form of support and care both from the third sector and our Children and Disabilities Team, so we have our own staff who work with these families as well.
“We are very cognisant of that and working with the third sector and doing our best.”
Councillor Gerry Mclaughlan (SNP) described the comment about the possibility of children going into care as the one of “most concern”, although he thanked officers for their reasssurance.
Ms Valente added: “Absolutely we share that concern.
“We would not want children taken into care because we can’t provide the care these families need.
“We are very cognisant of that and will continue to work with that.
“I hope you are reassured that our eyes are upon that and we are doing our level best to improve upon that.”
Overall the wider Children and Families service is underspent by £603,000 – although this is £178,000 less than previously.
Around £409,000 of this related to “lower level” vulnerable children’s care packages with committee members being told that there was less dependency upon high cost care packages as well as improved service management and a stronger resource base.
Referencing the overall picture for the Children and Families service, she said: “Just to remind people that we have had significant success in transforming our services and altering the way we deliver care for children.
“We are maintaining more children in our communities and we have significantly reduced the number of children in external residential placements over the last six years.
“The numbers six years ago were at 40. Yesterday they were nine. Three of those were day placements at schools and education only. Six is signficiant success in how we deliver care.
“These placements are very expensive and can cost circa £150,000 to £200,000 a year.
“That’s the cost for one placement. We provide a cushion in our budget in case there are any emergency situations or unpredictable situations.
“Thankfully we have not had to use that this year which is one explanation for the underspend.”