Scottish childrens services £135m underfunded

27 Jan 05
Scottish councils face a £135m shortfall in funding for children's social work services, according to a report by a leading academic.

28 January 2005

Scottish councils face a £135m shortfall in funding for children's social work services, according to a report by a leading academic.

Arthur Midwinter, professor emeritus at Strathclyde University, urged the Scottish Executive to review its funding provision for children's services. His report, prepared for Aberdeen City Council, says the funding problem has been caused by the erosion of the core Executive grant for the service, along with a rise in demand and significant cost increases.

Midwinter said: 'The funding gap is exceptionally large in terms of local authority services. In education, the gap is normally between 2%–3% only.

'There is a clear case for the Executive to review its funding provision, or its objectives for children's services will not be met. Moreover, the additional cost at the moment is falling on council tax payers across Scotland, or other services are having to be reduced as a result.' According to Midwinter, the 32 councils in 2003/04 were on average spending 50% more on children's social work services than budgeted for by the Scottish Executive.

Shetland Council was £1.8m or 300%, over its allocated grant-aided expenditure while Edinburgh was £23m, or 101%, over its limit. Aberdeen City Council was 113%, or £10.1m in excess, equivalent to about 12% on the council tax. East Dunbartonshire and the Scottish Borders were also more than 100% over their allocated GAE. Midwinter has advised Aberdeen to seek short-term support from the Executive to allow it to tackle its specific problems and to press for the national shortfall to be addressed by ministers and by the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla).

Aberdeen had taken some action to address the problem, but was being hindered by financial constraints, Midwinter said. A spokesman for the Scottish Executive said a complex and robust settlement formula had been put in place to ensure that all the different circumstances of councils were taken into account.

He added that the Executive's independent review of local government finance, now under way, would look at the way core services were funded.

PFjan2005

Did you enjoy this article?

AddToAny

Top