Dumfries & Galloway Council – Increased need for Kinship Care adds to pressures on Social Work budgets
Written by Kevin Rennie on August 22, 2013
Members of Social Work Committee heard today that a number of areas of the budget are under pressure because of an increase in local need.
Kinship care and care at home for children with disabilities are two of the pressures highlighted this month.
An additional 39 children are likely to meet the criteria for kinship care over the next few months. A further report on Kinship Care will be presented when the Children and Young Person’s Bill is due to be approved.
Chair of Social Work Services, Councillor Andy Ferguson, said, “I am concerned that we have further pressures on our social work budget. This has been identified early in the financial year as a result of improved monitoring, but it is a wider issue than budget. Kinship care is an important option for front line staff when considering the safety and wellbeing of a child when parents cannot provide care. Staying with relatives or friends is often less disruptive for the child than going into foster care or a residential home. It is the nature of social work that some levels of need will change unpredictably, but the priority is that children are safe and protected. We are developing more efficient and innovative ways of providing these under-pressure services.”
At its meeting of 20 June 2013, the Committee agreed a range of measures to bring the Social Work budget into recurring balance. That included the application of additional funding and also indicated a need for significant change in the approach to Social Work Service provision to address the need to contain spending within available resources on a sustainable basis.
Today, Members noted that Social Work Services is forecasting a pressure of £165,000 due to increased costs in Children’s and Families Services. The projected pressure in kinship care is £173,000 which is offset partially by under spends elsewhere within social work budgets.
Adult services are forecast to under spend by £46,000 due to fewer people in residential care for older people. Dumfries and Galloway has been very successful at enabling people to stay independent in their own homes.
Members agreed that Social Work Services can spend up to the identified pressure of £173,000 on those kinship care packages already assessed and agreed. They also agreed that the funding must come from within existing resources, including identifying alternative options when appropriate.
Councillors also noted that the service is continuing to manage service demands to reach the £1.1 million of savings to balance the existing budget. A number of reports will be coming to future committees as the service reviews its ways of working, its paid allowances and its charging policy.
Members of the Committee also discussed progress on the Way Forward Plan which is a programme to enable Social Work Services manage its services more effectively. Staff in the front line have been involved in discussion on changing and improving the service.
A number of actions are underway to support Social Work’s financial recovery and progress has been made on:
• Guidance issued to all budget holders to control costs
• Review of high cost care packages with an additional £120,000 saved since June 2013.
• Reviewing block contracts
• Reducing the backlog of invoices to be processed
• Early intervention and prevention work
• Ordinary residence claims
Members reviewed the progress on the plan and agreed to receive regular updates.
