Often children in mainstream education are deemed to require highly expensive institutional care. Leicestershire spent £732,502 for just one such child last year. Barnet £716,318, Doncaster £677,857, Hampshire £671,594 and Cornwall £629,200.
The highest daily cost of home-to-school transport for any individual pupil was £969 a day for Camden. Lincolnshire £650. Redbridge £630. Gloucestershire £603.92. East Sussex £577.40. Brighton and Hove £500. Dorset £481.65. Buckinghamshire £480.
The problem for the Council is not that it is taxing too little. It is not that is has been unfairly treated. The difficulty is that it is spending too much.
The educational benefits are well established. But progress will be derisory until the social worker veto is removed.
The seventh article in a new series on ConHome about how government might be made smaller, taxpayers better off and and society stronger – through strong families, better schools and good jobs.
The sixth article in a new series on ConHome about how government might be made smaller, taxpayers better off and and society stronger – through strong families, better schools and good jobs.
Our spending on Children’s Services this year in Middlesbrough will be £56 million – out of an overall budget of around £116 million. We need to reduce the number of children needing our help in the first place.
We are reducing our property portfolio by 40 per cent. Using technology and innovation has delivered savings. Greater use of partnerships has also saved money while delivering ease and convenience for the public.
£50 million of funding was announced this week for 13 councils to research “health inequalities”. The practical benefit has not been made clear.
The children’s care system delivers poor outcomes for both taxpayers and our most vulnerable children. Reform must be a priority.
Only by comprehensively shining a light on institutional failures, do we stand a chance to reform the system and eradicate these horrors.
The council has announced a property development alliance with Lovell Partnerships to build 2,800 low carbon homes.
The man who confronted the education blob, and championed Brexit, has become officialdom’s poodle. A document of 332 pages has little to say.
Children’s Home charges have become extortionate. Part of the answer is a big push to recruit more foster carers.
Building on the momentum created by existing policy, and learning lessons from overseas, can deliver a significant boost to British family policy – without breaking the bank.