Glynn Doherty, Social care trade union organiser
Children’s social care services are “staring down the barrel of a very difficult winter”, according to Steve Crocker, president of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS).
Crocker, who earlier this year used his inaugural presidential speech to demand something be done to stop profiteering in the sector, says councils will need an extra three quarters of a billion pounds just to stand still. With the new prime minister and chancellor planning further swingeing cuts to council budgets, services face a deepening crisis.
A recent ADCS report says there are 32,000 young people aged 19-21 who had previously been in care supported by local authorities, a 22% increase in just seven years. An estimated 2.77 million initial contacts were received by children’s services in 2021-22 – a 10% increase from two years prior.
Again, Crocker returned to the theme of profiteering, saying the “elephant in the room” was providers earning significant profits from a statutory service.
How can this be challenged? Pressure must be maintained on central government by the trade unions and campaign groups, especially given the weak and divided state of the Tory party. But local authorities, with their significant reserves and ability to borrow money, could really pile on the pressure by setting people’s budgets based on what is needed to protect and increase essential services – and demanding the money from the government.
Councillors must fight
We need councillors prepared to fight for what is desperately needed in our communities. Councillors who refuse to implement further austerity, rejecting tax increases, rent or other charges for working-class people, and opposing the privatisation of council jobs and services, including in children’s social care. That campaign is not going to come from the Labour Party, with Angela Rayner again signalling how comfortable it is with “the filthy rich”, no doubt including the social care profiteers. It will come from the grassroots campaigns and the trade unions. And it must mean those organisations standing their own candidates in next year’s local elections.
