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£1.2m Child Care Probe

INVESTIGATIONS are to be launched into the soaring cost of caring for vulnerable children in Blackpool.

A new report has revealed it costs almost £1.2m a year to provide specialist care for just SIX of the borough's most at risk youngsters.

There are 295 children in care in Blackpool, and the cost of looking after them has spiralled way over budget as social workers are having to intervene in more and more cases – many of them involving physical and sexual abuse.

A special committee of councillors is now being set up to investigate the situation. In a report looking at reasons behind the overspend, cases of six children were highlighted. The cases included:

* A boy who poses a serious risk to younger children because of aggressive sexual behaviour. He requires a small therapeutic residential home, staffed round-the-clock, at a cost of £5,000 per week.
* A second boy suffers with self-harm and suicidal tendencies. He requires special mental health care costing £3,500 a week.
* A 13-year-old boy who has severe behavioural difficulties and places himself at risk of sexual exploitation. He needs to be placed away from "negative influences" within a residential school environment, costing £2,767 per week (£143,884 per year).

Last year, Blackpool Council's Children's Services department overspent on its £13.5m annual budget by £361,000.The results of an inspection last March found 18 of 22 cases, looked at as a sample, had paedophile involvement. The inspector commented this was "unprecedented in his experience."

Coun Sylvia Taylor, chairman of the Children Services Development Committee, said a special committee of councillors would be set up to investigate the situation. She said: "There are a lot of transient families coming in to Blackpool. We have to look at what is best for vulnerable children and that comes at an expense. We are trying to get more children located locally, but sometimes we haven't got facilities for children with special problems."

Part of the reason behind more children needing care is the "threshold" for intervention by social services was reduced following early inspections of the service.

Most of the cost for care is picked up through Council Tax and by the resort's Primary Care Trust, which is funded by central government. Blackpool's Director of Children's Services David Lund was aiming to review its strategy in a bid to try and keep the costs under control. One alternative might be to develop more in-house provision rather than external placements.shelagh.parkinson@blackpoolgazette.co.uk

22 September 2005