Concerns raised over funding of children’s services in Rochdale following ‘damning’ inspection report

Concerns have been raised over the funding of children’s services in Rochdale after a council-run home received a damning inspection report.

Ofsted found at-risk youngsters were regularly going missing from the facility and has stopped it from taking on any more children until the necessary improvements are made.

The home cannot be named for safeguarding reasons.
 

Read more: Children’s home run by Rochdale Council barred from taking on any more kids until it proves it can keep them safePublished: 18 February 2021

Heywood and Middleton MP Chris Clarkson has since called on the authority to ‘work night and day’ to ensure that the borough’s most vulnerable children are kept safe.

In a letter to the Education Secretary, the MP expressed his concern that: “Children who are at risk of child sexual exploitation are housed in this home and were discovered to have regularly been missing for lengthy periods of time.”

Mr Clarkson has also urged the Council to take “immediate action” to address findings that staff do not have the skills and knowledge to ensure that children are always protected, had failed to search for children who were missing and were not notifying the relevant authorities about incidents of this nature.

Mr Clarkson has asked the Education Secretary to raise the findings in this report directly with Rochdale Council as “a matter of urgency” to ensure that the necessary actions and recommended measures are put in place.

 

 

The Heywood and Middleton MP has pledged to follow developments closely and has said that “we must stop at nothing” to ensure that the most vulnerable young people in our communities are kept safe.

The issue was also raised by councillors at a budget scrutiny committee meeting this week.

Referring to the report, Councillor Liam O’Rourke asked what flexibility there was within the proposed 2021/22 budget to make extra funds available for children’s social care.

He added: “Obviously that was quite a damning report last week – have there been any conversations since to make sure extra resources are going to children’s services on top of what was already planned?

“I’m assuming the contents of that report were not planned – clearly not – and therefore extra resources are going to be needed since that report to address those concerns.

“We need to make it very clear to the public out there that we are taking urgent action and make sure the resources are there to back it.”

Chief finance officer Julie Murphy said the council was heading into the third year of a five-year strategy putting an additional £6.8m into the children’s services budget – £2.8m of which will remain beyond 2024.

Ms Murphy added that finance and children’s services bosses met regularly to discuss the strategy and its progress.

She told the meeting that, while ‘some emergency meetings’ had taken place in wake of the report, she was not aware of any requests for additional funding.

“But if there was a request of such, of course that would have to be funded to get us to the place we need to be,” she added.

Councillor Michael Holly posed a broader question about the adequate children’s services funding, noting that, while it was on course for a surplus, it had repeatedly overspent in recent years.

Ms Murphy drew members’ attention to a proposal in the budget to set up a reserve for ‘demand-led services’ and the economy.

She added: “We don’t know if children’s services pressures will start to increase next year but we have provided some money in a reserve if that’s the outcome.”

Following Ofsted’s report, Rochdale council accepted standards at the home were ‘unacceptable’ but said it was working hard to make the ‘rapid improvements required’.

The meeting of the council’s overview and scrutiny committee was held on Monday night (22 February).

Nick Statham, Local Democracy Reporter

Additional reporting: Rochdale Online News