Warning children’s trust could go £26m over budget as council leader declares situation ‘wholly unacceptable'

More children coming into care, more complex cases and hiked up placement costs have caused the spend of the children’s trust to increase massively

By Sarah Ward

Photo by Trym Nilsen on Unsplash

There are early warning signs Northamptonshire Children’s Trust could go over budget by as £26m this year - a sum which will have to be found by the two unitary councils.

The trust has told NN Journal that more children in care, more complex cases and a huge rise in prices of independent providers is behind the predicted overspend - which if it cannot be reduced will cause a huge headache for the two unitary councils, as cuts will have to be made in other departments.

The high cost of children’s services has been an issue for many years - and is not unique to the independent trust which was brought in in Northants after the woeful performance of the former conservative run in November 2020.

However the authorities have both been highly critical of the trust in recent months and yesterday at the executive meeting of North Northamptonshire Council, its leader, Cllr Jason Smithers, delivered a speech outlining his position.