THE financial pressures facing BCP Council must not impact on the work being done to address the problems in the authority’s children’s services.

That is the message from the independent advisor responsible for the oversight of the department’s journey to get back on track.

Improvement advisor John Coughlan has published his first report on BCP Council since being appointed by the Department for Education back in April.

Mr Coughlan said there were “cautious grounds for optimism” but added there are several “substantial barriers to improvement”.

As reported, BCP Council is planning £42.6million of service savings in 2023/24 to deliver a balanced budget.

While the medium term financial plan includes an additional £14.6million cost in children’s services next year, the proposals include a currently unidentified saving of £600,000 in the department.

On the finances of children’s services, Mr Coughlan told the Daily Echo: “It is a difficult message because this is about local democratic accountability and I appreciate that because the council is under lots and lots of financial pressures but they have to protect children’s social care from those financial pressures.”

Bournemouth Echo: John CoughlanJohn Coughlan

Cllr Mike White, portfolio holder for children and young people, said: “This is exactly what we are planning to do.”

Read more on Ofsted and the improvement advisor reports

Mr Coughlan said BCP Council, like all local authorities and especially those responsible for children’s and adult services, was under “tremendous pressure”.

He said these pressures were stressed further by the pandemic and cost of living crisis.

In his report, Mr Coughlan warned: “Any steps to reduce (rather than build) financial capacity of the statutory service at this time would be frankly dangerous.

“Meanwhile there may be opportunities to find further savings in non-statutory services but they will not be politically popular. From the perspective of this intervention the welfare issue must surely be paramount."

The former head of Hampshire County Council’s children’s services told the Daily Echo: “I have to draw a conclusion that the council understands the financial priority of children’s services.

“Unfortunately, without blaming anybody, the fact of the matter is when children’s services fail it costs more to get them better than it costs to keep them good.”

Mr Coughlan’s report said “pace and sustainability of future improvement” were dependent on Cathi Hadley remaining in her role as director of children’s services with clear support.

“This is no reflection on predecessors, but I think BCP Council clearly has an experienced and capable director of children’s services who understands the needs of the authority and that is a huge step,” he said.

The former head of Hampshire County Council’s children’s services said the journey ahead for the council was “frustratingly hard”.

He added: “Hopefully we are working now in a spirit of no surprises. Essentially, my report is what it looks like under the bonnet.

“I think we have got the makings of a successful improvement journey but it takes years, not weeks and months.

“Three to four years frankly and we have used up one.

“Also, you often go a couple of steps forward and one or two back. There are some challenges as we go so it does need everybody to stay very determined and very focused.”

Cllr White said he found it "very encouraging" that Ofsted and Mr Coughlan commented positively on Ms Hadley and the department's leadership team.

Bournemouth Echo: Cllr Mike WhiteCllr Mike White (Image: BCP Council)

He added: "If you ask the leader he will say that children’s services remains our top priority.

“A lot of work has been going on with cabinet and the top management team, meeting weekly on this. In the cabinet paper it does say given certain assumptions we are looking at an overall surplus this year and a balanced budget in 2023/24.

"We have made substantial progress relative to where we were a few weeks ago.”