Inroads made into care crisis

SOCIAL work chiefs this week insisted they are making inroads into tackling Dumfries and Galloway’s children’s residential care crisis. The number of children living in expensive, privately-run care homes outwith the region has reduced from 33 in December to 28 this week. And resources invested into improving kinship care support is also bearing fruit in terms of keeping families together. With councillors concerned about astronomical bills for children’s residential care and a lack of facilities in this region, they were given an update at the social work committee on Tuesday. Charles Rocks, the council’s head of children, families and justice services, said: “I thought it would be helpful to provide additional information on some of the workstreams that have been developed over the last six months that looks to provide additional mitigation in supporting our overall ambition to reduce the numbers of children who require high-cost residential care, and having children return to Dumfries and Galloway. Back to their homes. Back to their communities. “One thing I’d like to highlight is the implementation and delivery of our intensive support services and our kinship support services. “I can’t understate the critical role these two teams have had over the last 12 months. This was a decision that members made, going back to 2023 in terms of additional funding and resources that social work services would require to mitigate some of these factors. “These teams are now fully up and running, and we’re beginning to see the evidence being provided by both teams in terms of some of the effectiveness in terms of having some of that additional intense support around children, who are in agency care, and family breakdown. “We’ve seen many examples where children may have required to be provided with or placed in care within the last six to 12 months that we’ve averted that, and supported them within the community or a family setting. “In addition to that, the intensive support team have been working incredibly well to support young people in some of our external placements outwith the region to return either back to a family, or to transitions.”