Huge overspends once again in Northants children's services budget
The service, which is run by an independent trust, is getting close to spending almost twice as much as it was three years ago
By Nadia Lincoln, local democracy reporter
Northamptonshire’s children’s services has bust its budget by tens of millions once again and the service is now costing almost twice as much as three years ago.
The Northamptonshire Children’s Trust (NCT) will present an update to both Northants councils this week, setting out a £27 million overspend on the budget it was allocated for 2025/26.
The NCT is forecast to spend a massive £213m on children’s services against its £186m annual budget, which was previously agreed on by the two unitary authorities.
In 2023/24 the budget was set at £130m (to be split across the North and West unitaries) but by the end of that year had risen to £180m. The budget set the following year was £185m but was again overspent. In 2024/25, NCT finished the year with a £16.6m overspend, a £32m overspend in 2023/24, and in 2022/23 the Trust was £21m over budget.
A report going to the Children’s Trust joint committee at Corby Cube tomorrow, which has representatives from both North and West Northants Councils (NNC and WNC), states that the main pressures are down to increased demand and placement costs, affecting services nationally.
It goes on to say:
“The national care market for vulnerable children is experiencing severe sufficiency challenges, characterised by a shortage of regulated placements, increasing complexity of need, and rising unit prices across fostering, residential care, and independent special school placements.
“This ‘broken market’ has led to higher reliance on high-cost independent and spot purchased placements, creating financial risk, budget volatility, and reduced influence over quality and outcomes.”
The trust is run by Colin Foster, who has been in charge since the trust was formed in 2021. The government ordered that it was set up after serious failings when children’s services were under the control of the former county council.
The cost of the overspend to the councils is based on the current contract split of 44.16 per cent for NNC and 55.84 per cent for WNC, with the West picking up a larger sum due to its size. This means North Northants will be responsible for around £12m of the overspend and the West will take on roughly £15m.
Local authorities have a statutory duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in their area, meaning many costs are unavoidable. The majority of the pressures are coming from placements for children in care, which is forecasting a £19m overspend alone.
At the end of February 2026, there were 181 residential placements – an increase of 31 compared to the start of the financial year. The report also states that the average weekly cost of residential care has increased by £1,491 from the beginning of 2025/26. Most placements are with private providers, who are not named in the report.
The total costs for 2025/26 already outstrip the contract sum set for the current financial year (2026/27), which has been increased to £200m. Northamptonshire has seen a pattern of increased budgets and annual overspends from the Children’s Trust in recent years.
In 2024/25, the NCT finished the year with a £16.6m overspend, a £32m overspend in 2023/24, and in 2022/23 the Trust was £21m over budget.
Over the last five years, the yearly budget set for the Trust has increased by over £60m, up from £137m in 2022/23.
Both councils have also identified the failure of the NCT to deliver services to the agreed standards and to sustain improvement in children’s social care services as one of the most severe risks on their strategic risk registers.
The financial position being reported is up until month eleven of the financial year which has just finished this month. The authorities will have to balance their books at the end of the financial year using any contingency budgets they have available, unspent reserves or from savings made in other services within the council.
If "the average weekly cost of residential care has increased by £1,491", how much does it cost now?
The private sector is extracting huge profits from childcare. In many cases the quality of care is questionable. This is a legacy from the failed Northamptonshire County Council. The taxpayer is getting the worst of all worlds. Expensive, poor quality services.