Vulnerable children and families will suffer if social work services in Dumfries and Galloway are not radically redesigned – it has been warned this week.
The region’s social work services are buckling under immense demand, pressures, and lack of finances.
Staff are “exhausted” and hundreds of families needing additional support could see their situation “deteriorate instead of improving” if significant changes are not made, according to the region’s chief social work officer.
Child care placements are projected to cost a staggering £6.1m in the next financial year – around £1.7m more than anticipated.
Stephen Morgan, the region’s chief social work officer, warns that action is necessary to prevent these costs spiralling and to bring stability.
In a report due to go before councillors at Dumfries and Galloway Council’s social work committee next week, he states: “The growth in demand also means our existing staff can not do the high quality work they need to do to address all presenting issues and to reduce people’s needs by increasing their living skills and resilience.
“If we do nothing, the needs of vulnerable children and their families will not be met in the best way and their outcomes will deteriorate instead of improving.
“At the same time staff will become increasingly exhausted and sickness absences will increase. This will result in poor outcomes such as an increase in high-cost placements that do not always get the best outcomes for children.”
The social work chief has proposed a series of measures being introduced to address the current issues.
This includes setting up a dedicated kinship care team, which will provide additional support for kinship carers and help children remain with their family.
Currently, a quarter of kinship placements break down, which adds to the council’s pressures of finding alternative care facilities for children.
A dedicated kinship carer team, which would cost £305,000 per year, would also relieve pressure on the overstretched family placement team and area social work teams.
A suggestion has also been made to introduce 10 intensive support foster carers in Dumfries and Galloway at a cost of £413,000, which would cut costs elsewhere and bring other benefits.
Mr Morgan explained: “Such foster carers are specifically recruited to meet the needs of children who have complex social needs and would ordinarily be placed in residential care outwith the region. Such carers will keep children in region and potentially enable us to bring some children back to the region sooner.
“This approach has proved successful in other areas of Scotland and also locally.”
Creating an intensive support outreach team, which would help families in crisis or approaching crisis situations, is also being proposed.
This team would work intensively with children and their families to avoid breakdown in relationships and the need for costly alternative accommodation.
To fund such a service will require recurring funding of £394,000 per year.
Social work chiefs are also weighing up creating their our own council-run residential facility.
At the social work committee on Thursday, February 15, councillors will be asked to consider these proposed service changes and factoring them into the upcoming budget setting process.
