Children's services face 'double whammy'
Neil Puffett
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Increased pressure on children's services as a result of the recession and the Baby Peter case is proving to be a long-term trend rather than a blip, it has been claimed.
Debbie Jones, chair of the resources and sustainability policy committee at the Association of Directors of Children's Services (ADCS), said the two phenomena had combined to prove a ‘double whammy' for service providers.
She told a meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Children that the ADCS was teaming up with C4EO, the National Children's Bureau and the Local Government Association (LGA) to collate national data on the situation.
"There is a double whammy of shrinking budgets and rising demand, which of itself creates a pressure to almost withdraw services back into a statutory silo. We need to avoid silos," said Jones.
"There must be interim funding support from central government to fill the gap between demand and supply."
Shireen Ritchie, chair of the LGA's children and young people's board, said a number of councils were struggling to fund services.
"Many councils are funding key services from reserves," she said. "That is the situation, but it is not sustainable in the long term."
She added that around 30 per cent of councils had recruitment difficulties, with 60 per cent facing retention problems.
"Weaknesses in recruitment, retention and training all compound one another and will make service improvements difficult to achieve."
