News Insight: How the CSR might hit services

SOCIAL CARE

According to the latest statistics from the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), 2009/10 saw a 35.9 per cent increase in care applications compared with the previous year.

In August, a survey by the Fostering Network found that out of 61 local authorities, 82 per cent had seen a rise in the number of children needing foster homes in 2009/10 and 58 per cent have found it more difficult to find appropriate homes for children.

Recruitment of social workers also remains a problem, with vacancy rates in some areas remaining stubbornly high.

Hilton Dawson, chief executive of the British Association of Social Workers, has written to every local authority in England asking what each of them is doing to protect frontline social work services from cuts. "We are unimpressed with the reports we are getting of local authorities freezing posts and cutting things like car allowance for child protection workers," he says. "A crisis situation is being made even worse by local authorities' decision making even before the CSR."

Dawson reveals that BASW is also working on a proposed solution to the problem with the Treasury in consultation with social workers that will be made public before the spending review.

David Holmes, chief executive of the British Association of Adoption and Fostering, is equally concerned. "The worst-case scenario is that funding for these crucial services could be cut," he says. "We recognise the government and local authorities are grappling with complex decisions. But it is critical that those children in care, in line for adoption and vulnerable to harm are protected."

YOUTH JUSTICE

Youth justice is facing a number of funding questions going into the Comprehensive Spending Review, possibly the most pertinent being whether the Youth Justice Board will be scrapped to save money within the Ministry of Justice. Issues around policing levels and whether there will be enough resources to rehabilitate offenders also feature in the minds of practitioners.

Tim Bateman, criminologist at the University of Bedfordshire and former policy adviser at crime reduction charity Nacro, says the worst-case scenario includes drastic reductions in the levels of staff in the sector. "Contrary to other fields, youth justice has expanded considerably in recent years," he says. "So in the eyes of local authorities, who are making these decision, it may be felt there is more scope for cuts."

Services that are not statutory including preventative services, mentoring schemes, and restorative justice schemes could also be under threat. "If these non-statutory services are cut, it will affect the quality of statutory work, affect the opportunities available to the children, but won't technically put the authority in breach of legislation," Bateman says. But he adds that depending on the future shape of policy, if the trend towards a reduction in the number of entrants to the youth justice system continues, it could mitigate the worst impact of cutbacks.

According to Lorna Hadley, chair of the Association of Youth Offending Team Managers, youth offending teams are already feeling the pinch through reductions in area-based grants, the loss of funding for challenge and support projects, and will come under further pressure with the loss of Youth Crime Action Plan funding. "Local authority funding is critical and if you have to take a 30 per cent hit it is going to make a big difference," she says.