‘No silver bullet’ to fix financial pressures on children’s services

A ‘PEER challenge’ which considered how efficiently children and family services are delivered in Redcar and Cleveland has said there is no silver bullet which can solve continued financial pressures.

The review, commissioned by Redcar and Cleveland Council and organised by the Local Government Association, made a number of recommendations, but also praised many aspects of the council’s work.

It saw senior officials from outside of the area spend three days at the council last November, meeting more than 70 staff working within the children and families directorate and also reviewing 40 ongoing children’s cases and evidence such as Ofsted reports.

A report for the council’s cabinet said the process “presented an opportunity to seek an external perspective on services provided and to see if anything could be learned from elsewhere to support the most efficient use of resources”.

Redcar and Cleveland, like many other local councils, is grappling with increased demand to look after children requiring care, many having complex needs who require specialist support.

It has been predicted there will be a £10.5m overspend by the directorate against budget at the end of the 2023/24 financial year, a further increase on a previous forecast.

The number of children in care is said to have risen by about 28 per cent in the past three years, with 43 residential placements each costing an average of £350,000 annually.

The report said: “The council is having to strike a very difficult balance between providing child centred services, with the volumes, costs and complexity of work relating to children and young people increasing significantly, which has the potential to impact the future financial sustainability of the organisation.”

The review said there “did not appear to be a single silver bullet” to fix the financial issues, but made 24 recommendations with an action plan subsequently put in place by the council in response.

The recommendations included developing an “overarching ambitious strategy and plan” for the department to assist in identifying priorities.

The council should continue to work with schools to boost levels of inclusion and a multi-agency child exploitation strategy be drawn up.

Systems should be strengthened so that opportunities for children and young people to exit the care system were taken in a more timely manner and they did not remain within it longer than necessary.

The council could also explore joining with other local authorities to commission some services on a sub-regional basis where this was mutually beneficial.

The peer challenge – described as a “critical friend” approach – said a commissioning team responsible for arranging care placements was effective, but under “considerable pressure”, lacking sufficient capacity and not always able to provide effective contract management and assure itself of the quality of provision.

Sufficient strategic commissioning resources were needed to effectively manage the market and better contain rising costs.