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Daily NewsWith council budgets throughout England below pressure, some are in search of progressive methods to save cash.
Behind the entrance door of a typical-looking home in a quiet residential avenue in Somerset, there’s one thing fairly radical happening.
The property has been purchased by Somerset Council and transformed right into a family-style residence for kids in care.
Three youngsters at the moment stay there, supported round-the clock by a group of workers.
Manager Kelly Field says: “Dinner’s just similar to any other home. We all sit down together, we talk about what’s gone on in the day. There’s a little bit of fun, a little bit of laughter.
“This is a household residence and every thing in it’s representing what a standard household residence ought to appear to be.”
Somerset Council has teamed up with Homes2Inspire, part of a charity called Shaw Trust, to open a total of 10 of these homes in Somerset, with seven due to be up and running by September.
It’s a departure from what’s been the trend across the sector in the past few decades, which has seen fewer council-run residential children’s homes and more reliance on private providers – which can often mean young people are sent far away from where they live.
“The primary purpose of what we’re attempting to attain is to arrange what I’d describe as regular household houses,” Ms Field says.
“There’s quite a lot of stigma connected to kids’s residential houses and what they could appear to be and we have to try to beat that.”
There’s another reason behind this too.
Across England children’s services are under pressure, with growing demand and increasing costs adding to the financial strain councils are facing.
Somerset Council says opening their own residential homes is a cheaper long-term solution.
Buying and converting them has required investment of about £3m from the council, as well as a £2.9m grant from the Department for Education.
In the first year the council says it saved £2m in their day-to-day spending on children’s social care.
The Lib Dem council leader, Bill Revans, says: “We had been having to seek out placements, although I want to consider them as houses, in different components of the nation and pay an enormous amount of cash for these when actually if we will present a less expensive and higher resolution right here in Somerset that is higher for everybody.”
Somerset Council declared a financial emergency last year, and since then has made extensive cuts to services to try and avoid bankruptcy.
In January there was a huge campaign to save a local sports facility, Yeovil Recreation Centre, when its future was threatened because of the council’s finances.
Somerset Council reached an agreement with Yeovil Town Council, who have taken over the running and maintenance costs, to the relief of many who value the centre, but it has required council tax rises to protect that and other local facilities.
Handing over services to town councils is another way Somerset is trying to save money, with smaller authorities stepping in to keep services functioning, from funding CCTV provision to managing parks and open spaces.
But while Somerset Council has managed to balance its budget this year, the leader says next year already looks challenging.
“We are doing every thing we will to make this council as environment friendly and productive as doable,” Mr Revans says.
“But the easy reality is quite a lot of councils are going to expire of cash as a result of the demand for our companies and the value of offering these companies is much larger than our revenue that’s coming in.”
The council has already undergone significant reorganisation, with five previous councils becoming one overarching authority for the whole county.
Now they’re looking to reduce the council’s wage bill by 25%, which will see around 1,000 posts go, and they’re selling off non-operational council assets including land, offices and some listed buildings.
The decisions the council has made aren’t without controversy, and have had an impact on local communities.
In South Somerset, the Chard Community Hub is a volunteer organisation that offers support to local residents with everything from food parcels and mending clothes, to helping people fill in forms for support they qualify for.
Chief executive Roz Hall, who used to work in local government herself, says they’re plugging gaps that are left behind when public services are squeezed.
“There is not anyplace else for them to go and discover that assist as a result of all the general public sector [has] disappeared by way of that entrance face, so how do you entry it?” she says.
“Who do you go to? There’s no person there.”
The pressure on local authorities across England is widespread.
Social care for adults and children, as well as spiralling costs for housing services, has seen many sound warnings about the future financial viability of the sector.
Somerset Council has written to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, calling for urgent action to prioritise local government.
Since taking office, ministers have attempted to strike a more collaborative tone with local government, promising to hand powers down from Westminster and provide more stability over funding.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government says: “The authorities will repair the foundations of native authorities and work carefully with the sector to take action.
“We will get local government back on its feet by doing the basics right, by providing councils with more stability through multi-year funding settlements, ending competitive bidding for pots of money and reforming the local audit system.”
But with the federal government already warning about stress on public funds, there is not any easy repair for a sector the place companies have been below pressure for a while, usually leaving communities feeling the consequence.
