Cuts made to the number of social work staff in Fife under the previous SNP/Liberal Democrat coalition on Fife Council are at least partly to blame for a £9 million overspend facing the children’s services budget, it has been claimed.
Council education spokesman Bryan Poole said there is a clear correlation between social work staff being cut from 182 in 2009 to 155 in 2011 and a corresponding increase in children now being placed in foster care and residential placements.
Costs to that budget have risen from £13m in 2011 to £27m now.
Mr Poole spoke out after a revenue budget financial monitoring report presented to the council’s executive committee in Glenrothes.
In a report from finance director Brian Livingston, councillors were told the deepening overspend relates to “an increased projected cost for purchased placements”.
Mr Livingston said children discharged from care have been “replaced with new placements presenting greater and more complex care needs.”
Mr Poole told The Courier: “The starting point in stabilising the children’s services budget is trying to understand the reasons for the dramatic increases in children requiring to be looked after by Fife Council in its role as corporate parent.
“Up until around 2010, the number of children in expensive purchased placements was relatively stable at around 150.
“Over the past three years there has been a doubling of those numbers, up to around 300, with a possibility of further increases unless we put in prevention measures.
“I’m sure some of that increase is connected to the recession and the reductions in the welfare budget a budget targeted at those most disadvantaged in our communities, including disadvantaged families and children.
“But I would argue there is a very strong correlation around choices made around previous budgets and in particular savings predicated on cuts to social workers working with children and families.”
Liberal Democrat group leader Tim Brett, who was social work committee chairman under the previous administration, said: “We put extra money into the children and families service in each year of our administration.
“We did support and reshape our social work service using modern technology because we believed it would make the service more efficient and effective.”
He said the staffing reductions Mr Livingston was talking about were predicated on giving frontline staff mobile computers so they did not have to go back to the office between clients.
He added: “There was an assumption that would mean we didn’t need as many frontline staff. We also reduced the number of managers’ posts, on the recommendation of the director of social work.
“We believed that was the right thing in order to protect social work staff.
“What’s happened is a significant increase in demand on the service. That’s because of domestic violence, alcohol and substance misuse and a general rise in the neglect of children.”