Two children in the care of West Berkshire Council are costing the authority about £2.7m a year — one roughly £22,000 a week, the other about £28,000 a week.
Those figures feed into a projected district debt of up to £37m for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) school provision, a report to the council’s executive says.
While the costs for these two children aren’t entirely linked to SEND, they highlight the expense at the sharp end of children’s social care as West Berkshire struggles for cash. The council will this week ask the Government for extra money to keep the lights on, while ministers say they will fund SEND debts.
The legal duty to care for these children sits with executive director of children and family services Annmarie Dodds. She defends the spending: “We don’t make decisions based on cost,” she said, adding she is told to cut costs every day. “We make decisions which are in the best interests of the children who are in our care.”
Ms Dodds explained the reasons for the high bills: some children have very complex, dysregulated behaviour that can be violent towards others or themselves. That can mean supervision levels from one-to-one up to four-to-one, and costly court processes to restrict liberty where necessary.
The council also bears internal costs when children make allegations against staff, requiring staff changes and investigations. But the biggest drain is placements: repeated moves — often prompted by allegations or rising risk — push providers to charge more.
“Placements is where the budget busts,” adds Ms Dodds. “But this is the right thing. I cannot think it is a good thing if a child has a knife, for example, and harms another person, or him or herself and we haven’t done our best to stop that by protecting that child in our care.”
Social services often hit the headlines only after tragedy, when public attention focuses on failures to protect children — think Victoria Climbié, Baby P and, more recently, the death of 10-year-old Sara Sharif.
Sara endured relentless abuse by her father, Urfan Sharif, and stepmother, Beinash Batool, before she was found dead at their Surrey home in August 2023.
Councils across England say the “extremely challenging” costs of children’s social care placements, rising demand for adult social care and temporary accommodation are driving significant overspends — a problem West Berkshire is experiencing.
At national level, the UK Government has pledged to cover 90% of accumulated SEND deficits for English councils up to the end of the 2025-26 financial year, to avoid widespread insolvency. Full SEND funding responsibility is due to move to central government from 2028-29.
The schools white paper also proposes reassessing education, health and care plans (EHCPs) after primary school and again after GCSEs. That could mean fewer children keep EHCPs into secondary school. Children in Year 6 in 2029 would be the first reviewed under the plans, ahead of secondary school in 2030.
Niki Hinman, Local Democracy Reporter
