Recent news that Sefton Council is facing huge budget shortfalls due to spiralling costs in Children’s Social Care has been met with concern by Sefton Conservative Leader, Mike Prendergast.
By the end of this financial year, Sefton Council will have spent £256 million since Children’s Social Care was rated as inadequate by OFSTED and a commissioner was appointed by central government.
The precarious financial position of the service has been highlighted as a threat to the financial viability of Sefton Council in previous years and the situation has not improved.
Commenting on the latest report, Councillor Mike Prendergast said, “We all want to see the much needed improvements in Children’s Services that are so desperately needed to ensure the most vulnerable children in Sefton are safe and cared for.”
“The financial position Sefton Council now finds itself though is a consequence of decisions taken over a long period of time, this hasn’t happened overnight, or even in the last 3-5 years, decisions taken over the last decade are now having a huge impact on the council’s budget and the services it is able to deliver.”
“Huge sums of money are now having to be spent to repair the damage that has been inflicted over a decade. I have great sympathy with the position that council officers and staff now find themselves in, they are having to fix the problems caused by others.”
“There is also, in my opinion, not enough significant evidence that the over a quarter of a billion pounds spent over the last 3 years will deliver a good Children’s Social Care service anytime soon and the massive spending on this area is now impacting other services.”
“Council reserves will now have to be raided to help pay for the budget shortfall and there is another significant overspend within the department this year. It’s not sustainable to raid reserves to pay for day to day expenditure and the reduction in reserves impacts the financial resilience of the council.”
“Council Tax will likely go up again this year as well, despite during the General Election campaign the Labour leadership, now in office, promising not to increase Council Tax. In Sefton, Council Tax has gone up over 43% since Labour took control of the council and with the next increase that figure will get nearer to 50%.”
“Local government is about choices and the quality of decisions made over the longer term. The consequences of poor decisions over a long time are now being felt, sadly though I fear that all we will hear from Sefton Labour over the next few weeks about the budget position is an abdication of responsibility and blame being laid elsewhere despite the fact they have been in charge in Sefton since 2012.”
