Serious concerns over budget of trust set up to improve Bradford Children's Services

The Bradford Children’s Trust, which took over the service from Bradford Council in April, is in the process of putting together a business plan that will detail how much money it will need to turn around the beleaguered service.

But at a Council meeting this week a top financial officer said the Council were “not in a position to accept” the Trust’s most recent predicted spending amounts.

The Council funds the Trust, and the meeting was told there was a risk its spending could be greater than the cash strapped Council’s capacity to pay for it.

The arm’s length children’s trust was set up as a response to Bradford Council’s continued failings to improve Children’s Services.

Repeated visits to Bradford by Ofsted found that the pace of improvement was too slow, and highlighted the Council’s reliance on agency staff, rather than permanent social workers.

But at a meeting of the Council’s Corporate Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday night, members were told that the Trust’s spending plans were also seemingly reliant on agency staff.

The Committee was discussing the Council’s first quarter finances – with a report revealing the Council is currently expected to overspend its 2023/24 budget by £13.8m.

However, this did not take into account the cost of the Children’s Trust, which is not expected to be revealed until September.

The report said: “The Trust contract is in its infancy; however, the Trust’s Management have identified a risk of overspend in 2023-24.

“The Trust is working on mitigations and the Council will support the Trust with them, including securing income sources.”

Chair of the Committee Nazam Azam (Lab, City) referred to this part of the report as “alarming.”

Christopher Kinsella, interim Finance Director, said: “I’ve recently had a meeting with the head of the Children’s Trust and the main issue we discussed was financial projections, which we are not in the position to accept.

“We cannot justify some of the basis of calculations for costs of children in expensive care compared to the model that was agreed with the trust.

“The other issue is the level of agency staff forecast to be included in the Trust’s financial model.

“I’ve written to the trust demanding a mitigation plan from them that has some substance before we can agree to underwrite any overspend.

“There is a risk to us as a Council if they are allowed to spend at a level that could ultimately exceed our reserve capacity.”

Joanne Hyde, Strategic Director for corporate resources, added: “The trust is only eight weeks into being a new company. We do need to give them a bit more time to do due diligence.”

She said it was “a bit premature” to include the line about the Trust’s finances in the report, but said it had been included for transparency.

Councillor Brendan Stubbs (Lib Dem, Eccleshill) said: “We all know the two big costs in Children’s Services are outside placements and agency staff. What actual red line do we have with the Trust? My understanding is if they say they need X amount of money then as a Council we have to find it for them, or convince ministers to find it.”

Mrs Hyde said the Council had a contract with the Trust, but that contract had been drawn up “very quickly.”

She added: “The cost of children’s services is the cost of children’s services – we have to make sure the Trust is running as affectively as possible.”

Cllr Stubbs replied: “My concern is how do we say ‘you need to go away and budget better?’

“They can’t come to us looking for an unlimited sum of money.”

Mrs Hyde said: “Where we think they are not sticking to the contract we can take action. But we accept that spend on some aspects can be out of anyone’s control.”

After the meeting Councillor Mike Pollard (Cons, Baildon) said: “Once again it seems that a budget in respect of Children’s Social Care is falling to pieces as early as the Quarter 1 monitor. It’s clear that, from what the Council’s Director of Finance said, that there have been further unbudgeted increases in the already epically high number of agency staff (at an annualised cost of not far short of £100k a head), in the number of children in horrendously expensive residential care placements outside the District (an average of £270k per annum each place).

“It’s noted that the Trust will submit a mitigating ‘Business Plan’ in September. It would probably have been a good idea to produce such a plan before the Trust arrangements went ‘live’ in April.”

Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe, Leader of Bradford Council, said: “The Chief Executive of the Trust has made a great start in getting the Trust up and running in record time so we can make the improvements we need for the children of our district.

“These are challenging times financially and there isn’t a local authority anywhere in the country that is not feeling this pressure. There’s nothing more important than our children and the Council and the Trust are united in getting the best services possible for them with the resources that we have.”

A spokesperson for Bradford Council said: “Scrutiny meetings are an important part of transparency and openness in our local democracy. They give Councillors from all parties the opportunity to ask tough questions around decisions. The Trust is only a few weeks old, but it is important that we can discuss any issues, so we can address them quickly as the trust matures.”