Council says it will miss £2.9m savings goal

Plans to save £2.9m at a local authority by reducing reliance on children's care placements have been unsuccessful so far, councillors have been told.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council's budget for the current year included proposals to limit dependence on external residential placements for children in care through "targeted step-down activity".

But now officers have predicted the anticipated saving will not be achieved – meaning spending cuts may have to be made elsewhere.

"We're in challenging times. We just don't have sufficient capacity," said cabinet member for children's services Sarah Jane Colclough.

"The numbers have slightly reduced since this report was written. But there's still a long way to go."

The city council has more looked after children than many other authorities in the country, which has put it under huge financial strain in recent years.

While the number of children in care in Stoke-on-Trent has fallen over the past 12 months from 1,118 to 1,057, this has not yet carried through into reduced spending on placements.

Members of the children and family services scrutiny committee were told this was largely due to a shortage of foster carers in the city, meaning more children had to be placed with private sector providers which have increased their charges.

Neil Macdonald, corporate director for children and family services, said "profiteering" in the sector was a big problem for councils nationally.

"We continue to look at whatever efficiencies we can make," he said.

"But ultimately, our primary objective is to safeguard and protect children, and we have to be able to do that."

He added that the authority did have some "levers" such as moving older teenagers into supported accommodation where appropriate, to help reduce spending on private sector placements.

He added that the authority was also keen to increase the use of "kinship carers" where a child is placed with a member of their extended family, but he said access to foster care remained the biggest challenge for the service.

Officers would continue to look for other potential savings, Macdonald added.

The council has had to request more than £60m of bailout loans from the government over the past three years, mainly due to its high spending on children in care.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.

Follow BBC Stoke & Staffordshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.