06 October 2006
Social work services for vulnerable children in Scotland are being underfunded by almost £161m, a leading authority on public finance has claimed.
Professor Arthur Midwinter, who carried out an independent assessment on behalf of the Association of Directors of Social Work in Scotland, said the growing funding shortfall was wholly exceptional for a major local authority service.
'While the Executive has provided additional funding for initiatives and joint working, it has neglected core funding of children's services,' he stated in a report released this week.
ADSW Scottish president David Crawford said: 'This means that services such as fostering and residential care are only funded by moving money from other areas of local authority responsibility, such as older people services.'
Crawford said the ADSW was gravely concerned by Midwinter's findings and had sent the report to Education and Young People Minister Peter Peacock and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities.
In his report, Midwinter, who is an adviser to the Scottish Parliament finance committee, said the cash provision for children's services in grant aided expenditure, which is allocated to councils for particular areas of spending, was £255.2m for 2006/07. This compared with a budget provision of £415.8m.
'The clear problem in the GAE provision is the failure to recognise the financial consequences of growing numbers of children in care and the increasing costs of care provision since 2000.'
A spokeswoman for the Scottish Executive said Midwinter had not taken into account a number of initiatives, such as £65m to help 'at risk' children and £60m on families with vulnerable young people under the Sure Start scheme.
PFoct2006
