Why does Herefordshire’s children’s services department cost so much while being so slow to deliver necessary improvements?

This was the question that a cross-party group of county councillors was appointed in November to answer. Their final report makes some alarming findings.

Children’s services is much the largest cause of the council’s forecast overspend this financial year of £13.8 million, and was supposed to make savings of £4.5 million. But the group was told by officials that “it was very unlikely any savings would be delivered by the end of the financial year”.

The council “relies substantially” on private-sector care for looked-after children, but the supply of this “has not kept pace with rising demand”, leading to providers more than doubling what they charge the council in less than a decade, from an average £2,310 per placement per week in 2014-15, to £4,860 in 2022-23.

A damning High Court judgment against the service in 2021, coupled with its current ‘Inadequate’ Ofsted rating, has made it hard to recruit social workers. As a result, the share of agency social workers the council employs has gone from 11 per cent in 2017 , to 72 per cent (64 out of 89 staff) last September, despite the council’s recruitment initiatives.

Each agency social worker costs Herefordshire Council an average of £55,572 extra a year, adding more than £3.5 million to its staffing bill.

Another “unexpected” cost pressure on the council is a forecast £2 million overspend this year on home-to-school transport for children with special educational needs. Here again, a “shrinking number” of companies bidding for such work has meant they can charge more.

While the department was supposed to make savings of £2.5 million by cutting the costs of children’s placements, particularly the costlier ones, this has yet to happen – partly because there has not been the expected fall in case numbers.

The group of councillors were also doubtful that proposed savings a the department in the next financial year were achievable, given the lack of evidence of anticipated savings actually being made in the current year.