Children's care to exceed council's budget by £6m

Rising costs mean a council is set to spend £6m more than it budgeted for children's social care.

Hartlepool Borough Council documents show its overspend for 2024-25 would take place despite an additional £4.5m being added to the budget.

A spokesperson for the local authority said it had faced "significant and sustained increases in children's social care costs in recent years" but was taking action to cut costs "across the board".

Labour MP for Hartlepool Jonathan Brash recently claimed children's social care was "slowly bankrupting" the council.

A major cause of the rising costs is the growing number of children needing to be placed in external homes, which are the most expensive.

There are currently 42 children in external placement care, costing an average of £6,000 per week, with the most expensive costing more than £10,000.

A spokesperson for the council said the increased costs were, in part, caused by "elements of the provider market making what many consider excessive profits at councils' expense".

The local authority welcomed Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson's plans to cap the profits of private children's social care firms.

Her plans include bringing in new measures to force large providers to disclose their finances, limit their profits and strengthen Ofsted's powers to investigate and fine them.

Hartlepool Borough Council said it was working to mitigate pressures on its care services by opening new local authority-run homes while working with providers to secure lower cost placements.

It added it was working to reduce costs and had forecasted a total in-year overspend of £1.7m across all its services, which would be met from its reserves.

The 2025/26 budget provision has since been increased and is to be considered by councillors in February.

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