Consultants have been brought in to examine the workings of Torbay Council's children's services, which remain hugely overspent.

The revelation came at a social services meeting where councillors registered their concern that spending on children in care is spiralling out of control.

Councillors have already agreed £2.5m cuts in family, child and care services to help bring the budget under control but has agreed to spend £28,000 on recruiting more adoptive families.

After hearing that another ten children had been taken into care in the past month, and that the projected overspend on children's services had reached £1.3m, Lib-Dem councillor Steve Darling asked for more information on what was being done by officers to control costs.

He asked: "What is being done to turn round this supertanker?"

Head of children's services George Norman told the committee that contracts with care providers outside the Bay were being phased out as far as possible.

He said: "Some of this increase is related to our policy of trying to get these children into more local placements.

"Overall, this will produce a reduction in our unit costs. We are gradually changing the nature of the placements these children are in."

Social Services director Jain Wood added: "The unit costs are coming down, but what is not coming down is the numbers. They are going up.

"There is a national trend of a rise in the numbers of children going into care, but our rate of increase is above the national one.

"Consultants will be looking at our child care practices to see whether, for example, we are intervening at the right point, and whether our thresholds for putting children into care are high or low."

Committee chairman Councillor Heather Buckpitt said the consultants had received a brief but had not yet begun their work.

Meanwhile determined mothers battling to save Torbay Council's threatened family centre found moral support from the leader of the Liberal Democrat party this week, writes Tim Platt.

Volunteers have now launched a desperate appeal for new premises as the organisation reels from this second blow after losing its annual £28,000 Torbay Council social services grant.

Charles Kennedy backed the mothers' fight when he met them at the centre while in the resort for the Lib-Dems spring conference.

He said: "It seems a very short-sighted decision by the council and I can understand how parents feel discriminated against. But it's not too late for the council to reverse its decision."

Used courtesy of the Torquay Herald Express