‘Looked-after child’s care cost £260k in six months’

ONE child’s care cost a council more than £260,000 in just six months, councillors have been told.

Members of Merthyr Tydfil council’s audit committee were told of the figure when discussing the cost of residential placements for children in care.

Provisional annual accounts show that there is a deficit of £379,000 in the looked-after children residential placements budget because of more placements in the system.

Councillor Chris Barry, Labour, expressed concerns about the costs, saying he wasn’t trying to be political because this had been a problem for many years for the council.

He said: “I struggle to understand how we misjudge this year on year.

“I don’t know why we can’t control this.

“Placements for children going outside the county borough is getting out of control.”

Councillor Andrew Barry, Independent, said it was “horrendous” some of the figures that had come through in Merthyr Tydfil and that they had tried to see if there had been a pattern over the past 10 years.

He added there had to be an opportunity for the council to invest to save but labelled the figures “phenomenal”.

He said it was a massive concern for the council but they were trying to put a plan in place to deal with it in the long term.

The officer who revealed the figure to members said that every council had the same issues in relation to the cost of looked-after children in residential placements.

Recent figures from Bridgend County Borough Council showed that the average cost for each child being placed in residential care outside the county borough was £160,000 a year.

Placements of this kind in Cardiff can cost as much as £200,000 a year, according to a report which came before the authority’s children and young people scrutiny committee in May.

The cost of residential placements for children in care in Merthyr Tydfil was brought into sharp focus in April this year.

A 12-year-old autistic girl from the area, Lili Thomas, was the subject of a campaign by a family friend to keep her at home after it was revealed that the council was looking to put her into a residential placement against her family’s wishes.

Hundreds of people signed an online petition against her being put in a home after the family’s four-year battle with the council over her care plan.

One family friend, Hayley Blanche, said that placing Lili into care could cost the council around £200,000 a year

The residential placement that Lili was set to go into was withdrawn and she is currently still at home.

At the meeting, Cllr Chris Barry also asked one of the officers to explain why there was a £154,000 deficit for council homes for the elderly.

He was told this was because of one of the homes for the elderly in the north of Merthyr Tydfil with staff cover costs needed for agency workers of £125,000 and a £67,000 cost due to under-occupancy.

There is currently an independent review of adult services taking place and the officer said that they have “major concerns” over this.

Overall the council had a net revenue budget surplus of £73,000.

The council has transferred this to its general reserves and £1.2 million to its earmarked reserves.

A total of £527,000 of earmarked reserves will be re-allocated because it wasn’t used for the purpose for which it was originally intended.

The council’s final revenue position will be revealed on September 26.