Kids' homes are 'bleeding council dry'

PRIVATE companies running children’s care homes are “bleeding Dumfries and Galloway Council dry”, a councillor has insisted.

Lochar Councillor Linda Dorward hit out during last week's social work committee after learning that the bill for residential childcare placements has soared to £9.5 million this year alone.

She wants to see the profits capped for privately-run children’s homes and has demanded that the Scottish Government provides more funding to Dumfries and Galloway Council, which has once again overspent on its budget for childcare provision.

Councillor Dorward, above, said: “Funding should not be focused on supporting the private-for-profit residential sector.

“It should be directed at supporting our children and young people.”

The lack of facilities here, coupled with extortionate charges by private providers outwith the region, means the council is facing a £10m bill for children’s residential placements this year.

Councillors have demanded that more facilities are made available for children in their home region, and Dumfries and Galloway Council’s social work and housing officers have been working tirelessly to establish one residential facility in the west and another in the east.

However, these won’t be opened until mid-2028 at the earliest.

Councillor Dorward, deputy leader of the Labour Group, said: “Local authorities last year spent £1.2 billion on residential care for children, and we’re spending £9.5 million per year on residential places for children.

“I really do think it’s incumbent on us to put a marker down here.”

The Children (Care Experience and Services Planning, Scotland) Bill is set to make changes in the law in relation to the children’s care system.

The legislation, which is now at stage three at Holyrood, will also alter who is responsible for the planning of children’s services.

Councillor Dorward said: “The Bill ‘may’ address capping profits – but doesn’t say it will, which is actually quite concerning to me.

“But what we’ve got at the moment is increasing costs that we can’t predict.

“It’s bleeding the council dry.”

It was agreed the social work committee chairman, Councillor Andy McFarlane, will write to the Minister for Children, Young People to demand urgent and immediate funding from the Scottish Government to support Dumfries and Galloway Council in addressing increasing costs for residential placements.