Budget figures for the current year are available on Nottinghamshire County Council’s web-site at:

Below are the accounts for all expenditure within Children’s Social Care (therefore actual spend, rather than budget) for the 3 complete financial years for which a Children’s Social Care division has existed (as part of Children & Young People’s Services). Prior to this the services were contained within Social Services (which included Adult’s Social Care).

Service Area / Balance Type / 2007-08 / 2008-09 / 2009-10
Fieldwork Services / Employees / 9,592,344.35 / 9,781,422.68 / 10,804,016.58
Running Expenses / 2,729,235.10 / 2,519,416.40 / 2,265,006.10
Fieldwork Services Total / 12,321,579.45 / 12,300,839.08 / 13,069,022.68
Child & Adolescent Mental Health / Employees / 294,026.28 / 338,168.93 / 417,407.52
Running Expenses / 552,710.53 / 586,938.07 / 559,917.70
Child & Adolescent Mental Health Total / 846,736.81 / 925,107.00 / 977,325.22
Family Services / Employees / 658,912.86 / 795,753.75 / 1,195,528.17
Running Expenses / 209,218.93 / 202,694.28 / 148,537.39
Family Services Total / 868,131.79 / 998,448.03 / 1,344,065.56
Homecare / Employees / 488,343.34 / 657,850.44 / 712,615.84
Running Expenses / 164,339.27 / 125,669.75 / 159,810.79
Homecare Total / 652,682.61 / 783,520.19 / 872,426.63
Short Breaks for Disabled Children / Employees / 439,546.44 / 457,972.13 / 799,255.42
Running Expenses / 250,306.48 / 278,194.90 / 2,240,124.12
Short Breaks for Disabled Children Total / 689,852.92 / 736,167.03 / 3,039,379.54
Occupational Therapy / Employees / 184,335.76 / 288,682.43
Running Expenses / 346,135.26 / 641,052.40 / 595,214.44
Occupational Therapy Total / 346,135.26 / 825,388.16 / 883,896.87
Adoption Services / Employees / 944,515.88 / 1,063,295.01 / 1,064,399.98
Running Expenses / 1,802,827.36 / 1,944,677.55 / 1,719,822.35
Adoption Services Total / 2,747,343.24 / 3,007,972.56 / 2,784,222.33
Aftercare / Employees / 679,385.14 / 701,178.65 / 667,298.50
Running Expenses / 648,664.06 / 530,228.50 / 546,830.81
Aftercare Total / 1,328,049.20 / 1,231,407.15 / 1,214,129.31
Children Looked After / Employees / 11,477,778.46 / 12,083,624.55 / 12,772,993.00
Running Expenses / 11,902,196.58 / 15,615,403.66 / 17,034,616.58
Children Looked After Total / 23,379,975.04 / 27,699,028.21 / 29,807,609.58
Divisional Overheads / Employees / 161,102.95 / 260,067.25 / 645,705.18
Running Expenses / 1,577,686.60 / 597,137.48 / 1,258,656.09
Divisional Overheads Total / 1,738,789.55 / 857,204.73 / 1,904,361.27
Safeguarding & Independent Review / Employees / 1,048,500.16 / 1,159,145.36 / 1,365,272.29
Running Expenses / 126,108.48 / 128,939.90 / 194,843.39
Safeguarding & Independent Review Total / 1,174,608.64 / 1,288,085.26 / 1,560,115.68
Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children / Running Expenses / 646,356.35 / 996,504.86 / 1,181,205.71
Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children Total / 646,356.35 / 996,504.86 / 1,181,205.71
Legal Fees / Running Expenses / 1,123,550.38 / 1,547,385.50 / 1,956,085.29
Legal Fees Total / 1,123,550.38 / 1,547,385.50 / 1,956,085.29
Grand Total / 47,863,791.24 / 53,197,057.76 / 60,593,845.67
Breakdown of Legal Costs / 2007-08 / 2008-09 / 2009-10
Internal Legal Costs / 835,167.20 / 906,673.60 / 1,120,420.25
External Legal Costs / 288,383.18 / 640,711.90 / 835,665.04
Total / 1,123,550.38 / 1,547,385.50 / 1,956,085.29

Notes

The Fieldwork Services expenditure includes the frontline social workers, their work is to safeguard children which may mean working with families to keep them safe in the home, or with other relatives, or where necessary dealing with proceedings to take children into care. A large proportion of the Running expenses will be client support costs supporting children & families who are not in care, as well as costs such as mileage & mobile phones for the social workers.

The Family Services expenditure includes teams of Parent Support Advisors, Family Resource Workers, & the Family Intervention Project.All of which is prevention work with families on the edge of care.

Several support teams within the division such as Homecare, Short Breaks for Disabled Children, Occupational Therapy, &Child & Adolescent Mental Health provide services that prevent family breakdown & avoid the need for children to become looked after.

The Legal Fees are split within the accounts according to whether they are internal costs (which consists of the costs of the County Council’s legal staff working on child cases) or external costs (such as court fees, work outsourced because of capacity issues, & other fees such as expert witnesses & specialist medical reports). The legal fees will largely be due to care proceedings but will contain the costs of other legal cases such as judicial reviews, adoption orders, or any other case relating to children in our care.

Also note that expenditure classed as “Employees” includes all staff in the Social Care Division, not just Social Workers. A frontline Social Worker’s pay, National Insurance, & Pension, costs the authority between £35,675 & £40,938 depending on experience.