Council shoulders £2m care bill for just one child

Richard Evans, local democracy reporter

A single care case is costing a Welsh council nearly £2m a year – the equivalent of thousands of residents’ council tax contributions, according to the authority’s chief executive.

At last week’s full meeting of Denbighshire council, chief executive Graham Boase revealed that one child recently brought into the council’s care is costing £35,000 a week.

Denbighshire claims frontline services must be cut year on year as the majority of the council’s budget is being swallowed by increasing costs across adult care, children’s care, and education.

“We’ve got one child in Denbighshire that has come into our care; £35,000 a week we are paying to care for that child,” Mr Boase told councillors.

“It is massive amounts of money that we are spending that council tax contributions are going towards.”

This week, the council confirmed the figure is actually £37,500 a week, pushing the annual cost of care for the young person to just under £2m.

Disabilities

The child, who has significant disabilities and complex behavioural needs, is receiving 24-hour specialist care. The council said sourcing such care is difficult due to a shortage of registered providers with the right expertise.

A Denbighshire County Council spokeswoman said: “We are trying to find alternative care solutions for this very vulnerable young person that meet their needs but is more cost efficient. This has proved difficult. However, our priority has to be protecting the most vulnerable in our communities and keeping them safe.”

The child is one of around 180 looked-after children in Denbighshire. The council’s total children’s residential care bill for the year is forecast to exceed £15m.

But the council claims the pressure on social services doesn’t stop there. Denbighshire currently supports more than 1,000 older residents, either at home or in care homes. Some care packages, the council claims, cost up to £1,850 a week – just shy of £100,000 a year per person.

Support for adults with physical disabilities or sensory impairments can reach £5,800 a week, or just over £300,000 a year per individual.

Complex cases

In the most complex cases, such as residents needing 24-hour nursing care and two carers per shift, costs continue to rise. One example cited by the council involves a citizen receiving £5,200 worth of care per week, totalling over £270,000 annually.

“These levels of care for our vulnerable residents do not come cheap, and costs are increasing,” said the council spokeswoman.

As budgets tighten and demand grows, the council has warned that local taxpayers will continue to shoulder the burden of escalating care bills.

The council says its budget for this year is just under £300m. The majority of this is funded by Welsh Government (circa 75%), with the remaining 25% being funded by council tax from residents.

Denbighshire claims £185m of the £300m is spent on education, and schools and £72m is spent on adult and children’s care, £53m and £19m respectively.

In 2018 the council claims it was paying £34m on adult care and £10m on child care, a rise of 54% and 88%, respectively, when compared to today’s costs.

A council spokeswoman added: “Nationally there are insufficient placements for children with complex needs which also contributes to rising costs.

“This massive increase in demand and increased costs is something we are legally required to meet and can only do so by reducing spend and therefore levels of service elsewhere.

“The costs of education and social services are going up more than the increases in council tax and money from Welsh Government, meaning we spend less on those community-valued placemaking functions such as street cleansing, maintenance of roads, public toilets, libraries, etc. to ensure we have enough money to meet our legal requirements to look after our most vulnerable residents, be they our elderly or young residents.

“No one in the council wants to see reduced services to our communities, but those reductions are necessary to pay for the ever-increasing costs of looking after our most vulnerable residents.”

‘Acute pressures’

She added: “We are facing a series of acute pressures. Social services and education dominate our spending. Costs in these areas have risen significantly over recent years; those increases are well above inflation. The result is that placemaking functions, as referred to above, that make a real difference to our communities are being squeezed out.

“In short there is no option but to reduce spend/reduce services in these placemaking functions, that provide services to the wider community, to cover the ever-increasing costs in providing services direct to our most vulnerable residents, those individuals who need it the most.

“Denbighshire is no different to all other councils in the UK in this regard, although our issues are acute, given we have two of the most deprived wards in Wales, and other areas of recognised deprivation throughout the county.

“It is in this context that the comments were made by the Chief Executive of Denbighshire County Council at last week’s full council meeting.”

She added: “The forecast for the range of our cost pressures for 2026/27, which are predominantly within education, children’s services, and adult social care, currently stands at somewhere between £14m to £26m; that’s a range of increase from 5% to 9% on this year’s budget.

“Those budget pressures will not be covered by government funding and council tax, so spend on other services, such as those placemaking services so valued by our residents, will need to reduce to offset these pressures. This situation has been ongoing for a number of years.”