Ministers ‘Short-Change Vulnerable Children By £160m’

The Executive was yesterday accused of under-funding social work services for vulnerable children by more than £160 million this year. Professor Arthur Midwinter, the budget adviser to Holyrood’s finance committee, told MSPs yesterday that the Executive gave councils £255 million to provide services such as fostering, residential and day care and secure accommodation.

But figures for this financial year show that local authorities are spending £415 million, Prof Midwinter said.

The latest funding claims came after The Scotsman revealed last month that children were being sent home to parents suspected of neglect and abuse because of a lack of foster carers and other accommodation.

And last night David Crawford, the president of the Association of Directors of Social Work, said that the funding shortfall had been growing since 1995.

Mr Crawford said social workers were “gravely concerned” at the findings and would be lobbying the Executive and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, COSLA, for more funding.

The money being spent by councils on children’s services was coming from other areas like spending on the elderly, Mr Crawford claimed.

Prof Midwinter told the finance committee that he had uncovered “a dramatic degree of underfunding” on children’s services.

The £160 million represented 63 per cent of what is called grant aided expenditure (GAe), allocated to councils by the Executive for particular areas of spending. He added: “It’s one of the most worrying gaps in GAe that I’ve seen in almost 35 years I’ve been studying it.”

Last night, however, the Executive hotly denied the figures, describing them as “inaccurate” and based on “incomplete information”.

A spokeswoman said that Prof Midwinter had not taken into account a number of spending initiatives including £65 million going to help vulnerable and ‘at risk’ children and £60 million being spent on families of vulnerable young people under the “Sure Start” scheme.

The spokeswoman pointed out that councils did not get all their money for specific services from the Executive and had discretion on how they allocate funds, including cash raised from council tax.

A spokesmanfor COSLA said that basing claims on spending on the GAe figures was “simplistic”. He added: “COSLA’s job is to address the general level of funding of all local government services. It is vital that money comes with the maximum flexibility to allow political leaders to spend it in line with their priorities.”