Gareth Davies @Gareth_Davies09
THREAD: While the PM was being told of another ministerial resignation today, Somerset County Council’s cabinet was meeting to discuss a report that should ring alarm bells across @mhclg and the rest of government
The top line from the report is this: a children’s services funding crisis could lead Somerset to become the next council to issue a section 114 notice (as close as a local authority can go to bankruptcy) like Northamptonshire CC did earlier this year
Here it is in black and white: “there is a risk the Council may have to take urgent decisions to rectify the financial position. An option that is available to the Council … is the issuing of a section 114 notice which imposes severe spending restrictions on the authority"
This is not a warning made lightly or a risk outlined in every report. It’s a reflection of the severity of a situation at least five years in the making and, a very real prospect facing Somerset and a growing number of local authorities in England
Background: Towards the end of 2017/18, Somerset’s children’s services faced a £14.6m deficit - the highest in the country (by year end it was reduced to £10m). 17/18 was the 4th straight year the council breached its budget in this area
The problem? A massive shortage of internal and external fostering placements, and capacity to provide early interventions. The council currently has 60 vacant social worker posts, some of which are covered by agency staff at an additional cost of £25k per worker
The % of permanent staff currently stands at 64% (the target is 75%). A review of caseloads has found the council in breach of its own policy. It wants to bring children placed in other LAs back to Somerset but lack of foster carers and social workers has hampered this effort
This means an over-reliance on the private sector. It costs Somerset an average of £4,208 a week to house a child in a private care home. Due to foster shortage, the council ended up paying for 2,200 more days accommodation in the second quarter of 2017/18, 14% more than expected
In total vulnerable children in Somerset spent nearly 2,000 more days in private children’s homes in 2017/18 than in 2016/17 (19,418 compared with 17,484). The average cost has increased by 18%. Also, the number of children helped by the council increased by 30% since April 2017
When @BureauLocal raised concerns about Somerset's financial position in March, it downplayed our findings and said it had set a “balanced budget”. But little more than 3 months into the new financial year, it is predicting a £14.3m children's services deficit (£12.1m overall)
Forecast costs are even higher than last year. This means the council has already had to approve the use of £5m of the £7.3m "contingency" funds set aside to see the department through the year.
^Going forward a complete “reset” of the budget is required, it says
In the meantime the council’s latest cost-cutting measures include closing two-thirds of its children’s centres^
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-43030833
^Today's report says more additional spending cuts, on top of those already announced, will be required to balance this year's budget
The report also says the use of the council’s reserves has been “critical in being able to manage spikes in demand and costs”. But @BureauLocal’s research shows this is not sustainable, even in the short-term.^
In the last 5 years Somerset's usable reserves have fallen by 60%. The 2018/19 figures published this month show reserve levels are due to fall a further 11%. Based on its use of reserves since 2013/14, the council will run out of money by 2020
Since the crisis in Northants earlier this year, everyone in the sector has been keen to stress their council will not be "the next Northamptonshire". But all indicators, and now the council's own warning systems, point to the prospect of Somerset facing financial meltdown too
A closer inspection of the government's own data shows 24 councils could be in the same situation within three years. A new funding system is in the pipeline, but for councils like Somerset - and the people who rely on their services - it could well be too late
A few points to this other than the fact its totally buried today.
- What happen in Leadsom's next of the woods recently in a local by-election?
- I've half considered fostering in the past. The biggest obstacle for us, would be not having a house big enough to do it. Question: Why is there a shortage of foster places?
- Constituencies that cover the Somerset area: Bridgwater and West Somerset, Somerton and Frome, Taunton Deane, Wells, Yeovil, North East Somerset, North Somerset. (the last two have some interesting MPs).