THE cost of providing social work services in Dumfries and Galloway has inflated to more than £41.5m this year.
Social work chiefs have confirmed that they are expecting a budget overspend of £742,000 at the end of this financial year – despite a previous budget top-up of £2.78m.
The sky high costs of residential and fostering placements for children continues to be a serious issue for the council.
This year, the residential placements – where youngsters are mainly being housed in expensive private accommodation outwith the region – has resulted in a £2.1m overspend.
A budget monitoring report will be presented to councillors at the council’s social work committee next week.
The document highlights the “ongoing significant pressures” currently being experienced within social work services, “particularly in relation to children’s residential placements”.
The report continues: “Significant additional investment was reflected in the social work budget from 2024/25 in recognition of the challenges experience by social work services in relation to residential and fostering placements (fostering allowances).
“While this investment was intended to reduce the number of external and out of region residential placements, through providing additional support and intervention and increasing the number of intensive foster carers, previous reports have highlighted the delays experienced in relation to fulfilling the new teams and the challenges associated with retaining and recruiting foster carers.”
The report explains that there are currently 30 young people in residential placements, and social work bosses admit that there is a risk that this number could increase between now and the end of the financial year.
Janet Sutton, council finance officer, wrote in the report: “It is therefore apparent that the number of children in residential placements will not be reduced to the targeted 21 by the end of the financial year.
“This increased cost and duration of the current placements is currently projected to result in an overspend of £2.1m.
“In addition, it is currently anticipated that fostering allowances will return an overspend of £207,000 due to the increased number of external placements that have been required, associated with ongoing challenges to recruit and retain foster carers.
“The service is continuing with the recruitment campaign for local foster carers, however, following a national trend this is proving extremely challenging.”
The social work budgetary pressures will be partially mitigated by various factors: projected underspending on employee costs, increased income due to be received in relation to unaccompanied asylum seeking children, and delays in the progression of additional investment measures.
