'Inadequate' council set to invest £12m to reduce number of children in care
Joe Lepper
Friday, September 15, 2017
A council rated as "inadequate" by Ofsted is planning to invest an extra £12m in children's social care in a bid to reduce the number of children coming into care.
Norfolk County Council, which was given the inspectorate's lowest rating for the second time in two years in October 2015, said looked-after children's numbers have increased consistently over the past five years from approximately 1,015 in March 2012 to 1,107 in March 2017 - an increase of 9.1 per cent.
It said that while looked-after children numbers have risen nationally over the period, the rate of the Norfolk increase has been faster than in other local authorities, with Norfolk looking after 65.9 children per 10,000 head of child population as of 31 March 2017, and similar authorities to Norfolk averaging 52.5.
The additional investment will be focused on early intervention support to prevent children coming into care. This will include an increase in the range of specialist help available to vulnerable families, including therapeutic support.
The council estimates that without the additional investment, its looked-after children population will continue to rise, costing an estimated £5m extra a year by 2021/22.
The money will be released over the next four years from the council's central budget and will also be used to improve its in-house fostering provision, as well as reduce its use of independent fostering agencies and residential care. This includes a foster carer recruitment campaign and the development of specialist fostering services.
A report on the plans will go before members of the council's policy and resources committee next Monday (25 September) for sign off.
"The overall approach will be to focus on providing families with earlier help, reduce the number of referrals to social care, have clearer thresholds, increase permanence for children, reduce the number of looked-after children and reduce overall service cost," the report states.
Norfolk County Council leader Cliff Jordan said: "This is an ambitious programme, which would transform how we work with children and families, ensuring that help and support is offered far earlier so that families do not reach breaking point.
"This is the first time such a significant one-off investment has been proposed for a programme of this kind in Norfolk - investing today will deliver long-term savings at a time when our budgets are under considerable pressure.
"As an administration, we believe it is the right approach for our county and shows our absolute commitment and determination to improve services for children."
In July, Norfolk appointed its sixth director of children's services in the space of four years, with Dorset County Council DCS Sara Tough set to take over from interim DCS Matt Dunkley in October.
Also during the summer, the council announced it is launching a project to work with children's charity Barnardo's to help run its looked-after children services.
The council is hoping to move from "inadequate" to "requires improvement" at its next inspection, which is expected later this year or early next year. Following a monitoring visit in June, Ofsted said the council is making "steady progress in improving services".
