Northumberland County Council is set to roll out a series of new initiatives in a bid to stop rampant overspending on children’s services.

The department is experiencing significant financial pressure with an overspend of £7.79 million predicted by the end of the fiscal year in April.

The issue is being driven by two key factors – the rising number of children with additional needs and increasing costs for children’s residential care.

At Tuesday’s meeting of the council’s cabinet, members approved a package of “long-term initiatives” designed to deliver a “significant reduction” in costs and mitigate the “challenges which are set to continue”.

The plan included an increase in the payments made to foster carers from £183.49 p/w to £210 p/w per child – a cost of £446,000 for 2024/25. A foster carer recruitment campaign is also set to be launched at a cost of £45,000 in a bid to stop more children requiring expensive residential care.

The council is also progressing with plans to build more of its own residential homes, having recently opened one such site in Pegswood. Further resources will be put into this programme to accelerate the process.

Speaking on the issue, cabinet member for education Coun Guy Renner Thompson said: “As a bit of background, councils across England are facing huge financial pressures in two areas of children’s services – SEND services because demand is increasing and children’s residential care.

“There are many, many councils that have buried their head in the sand and are already hundreds of millions over budget.

"We’re not doing that, we’re taking the bull by the horns to try and work out this problem so it is no longer an issue in future years.

“The first part is to increase our budget for our foster carers. This brings us in line with neighbouring authorities.

“We did have a petition asking for more money and we have listened to that, but we were already doing this work before that petition came in. By improving our foster car proposition, we are hoping that less children will be in the residential care system which is good for the children and good for the council’s finances, because once they’re in that the costs go up and up.

“There are horror stories of costs of £20,000 a week for certain children to be in those systems.

“We’re also accelerating our existing children’s homes building. If we have our own in-house provision we’re not relying on third-party private companies to provide our children’s residential care because those ones are the ones that are really expensive.

"If we do it ourselves, it is cheaper.

“We know this is a problem for the council – it’s a problem for councils across the UK – but we’re trying to do something about it.”

On SEND, the cabinet approved plans for additional investment in the SEND team to reduce mistakes and mitigate fines. A new team of SEND experts will also be developed to work with families and provide advice, guidance and support. A digital education, health and care planning system (EHCP) will also be developed.