Spiralling costs in child residential care have forced council bosses to adopt a radical new approach which will see traditional homes for troubled youngsters scrapped by 2018.
A £1.7 million shake-up of residential services in Perth and Kinross has been proposed to address a surge in the number of vulnerable children needing specialist care.
Council chiefs want to overhaul the way youngsters “on the edge of care” are looked after, placing greater focus on early intervention and prevention measures.
The new set-up, which will rely on foster families for accommodation, is based on a pioneering scheme launched in North Yorkshire – No Wrong Door – which has been dubbed “outstanding” by Ofsted.
It will be the first service of its kind in Scotland.
Councillors were told that change was needed to cope with increased budget pressures resulting from an annual 10% rise in the number of looked after children.
In the last three years, the council has overspent its residential care budget by £2.3 million, mainly by using out-of-area placements.
If no changes are made, the local authority faces extra annual costs of around £3 million by 2020.
The proposed option will be to scrap traditional council-run services at The Cottages, in Almondbank, which offers residential support for around three of four youngsters.
The building will be turned into a non-residential hub, staffed by specialists teachers and therapists.
It will cost about £1.7 million to establish the new service, providing extra training for staff as well as creating specialist roles. A new site may also have to be bought for accommodation for emergency cases.
However, officials believe the scheme will cut the number of external placements by half, leading to a projected underspend of around £200,000 by 2022.
The new model aims to empower troubled youngsters and help them “restore and maintain relationships with their families and communities”.
Sheena Devlin, executive director for education and children’s services said: “This proposes an innovative, bold and forward-thinking approach to enhance the lives of our young people, who we would describe as on the edge of care.
“This is the time to make a radical change to the way we provide care to our most vulnerable young people and build upon our already high quality services.”
During talks between councillors and education chiefs, the new scheme was widely supported but there were concerns about the transitional period when the hub launches in late 2018.
SNP group leader Dave Doogan called for a decision to be postponed.
“All of us realise that there is an acute sustainable problem in the service that we’ve got and that radical action is required,” he said.
“However, there are significant concerns about our ability to provide crisis care during the transition period; about the pace of this change and about the availability and cost of private sector provision.”
Councillors voted to push ahead with the scheme, without a deferral.
Lifelong learning convener Caroline Shiers said: “This is a very radical change in the enhancement of the service we can and must provide.
“The option requires significant financial investment for the development and training of our staff. But this investment will mean a sustainable service which will meet the needs of people now and in the future.”
