Bid To Reverse Foster Care Crisis In Nottingham

Nottingham will spend an extra £10m to bring its foster children back to the city. Youngsters are staying with foster families as far away as Wales because of a shortage of carers here.

Last year 94 children were in foster care more than 20 miles from home, further than Government guidelines allow.

The extra money will pay for recruiting and training new carers and helping existing foster families. The city council hopes it will also reduce its dependency on private foster care agencies, which are expensive.

Last year the authority racked up a £2m overspend on its £6.2m budget for foster and residential care.

The expenditure on children’s services will have to be paid for by reducing costs elsewhere, including significant savings in adult social care.