THE politician responsible for children’s services in County Durham says there is not enough money in the system to look after young people in local authority care.

Durham County Council’s cabinet heard it’s children’s services are still coming under financial pressure despite having given around £4.5m in extra funding to help it cope with the cost of looking after children.

The service is forecast to be £0.830 million over budget for the year, largely because of costs involved with providing placements for children.

Un-budgeted agency staff costs is forecast to be about £0.5m

Councillor Olwyn Gunn, cabinet member for children and young people, said:“Although spending for care has risen by almost 10 per cent, government funding has been cut by 49 per cent. That’s an eye-watering figure.

“We are working as hard as we possibly can to look after young people in County Durham but there comes a point, and we have reached that point, where there is not enough money in the system.

“It’s not just County Durham saying this, it’s authorities up and down the country. They are warning the Government that children’s services are in crisis.”

She added: “We are continuing to see huge pressure on children’s services.

“This council has put in significant extra funding of £4.4m into its services in the last two years, despite the ongoing, and relentless, government funding cuts we have had to face.

“This council has been forced to make cuts of around £37m to children’s services since 2010 – that’s a third of the budget and enough for 12 children and family centres that can provide early support.

“They could prevent families ending up at the doors of family services. They can prevent things reaching a critical point.”

In response to the claims, a Government spokesperson said: “We want every child to have the best start in life, with the opportunities and the stability to fulfil their potential, which is why we have made £200 billion available to councils up to 2020 for local services including those for children and young people.

“We also provide a further £270 million for councils to develop improvements in their service and create innovative programmes to improve the lives of these vulnerable children.”