THE city council is facing a £9m deficit in its child services budget after predicting a drop in demand.

Robert Henderson, executive director for wellbeing, children and learning said he takes ‘responsibility’ for the ‘error’ that had been made.

His team had thought there would be a drop in children in need, child protection, looked-after children and court proceedings.

But demand did not drop. Speaking at scrutiny management committee, Mr Henderson said: “I don’t think we understood Covid and the impact of Covid as well as we should have done.

“Demand and complexity of children and young people coming through has gone up significantly.

“We did not anticipate that.

“You can call that an error.

“We were caught on the back foot.”

He added: “Our assumptions have been erroneous and I’ve got to take responsibility for those assumptions.”

Mr Henderson also admitted the council had been pouring in cash for services prior to Ofsted inspections only to then pull the money afterwards.

He said: “Southampton for a very long time had inconsistent leadership in children’s services.

“There has also been yoyo investment in children, what we see in Southampton is cliff edge financing.

"You put loads of money in because Ofsted is coming then you pull it out.”

Covid and the negative social issues it has brought has left an increased number of children behind on education, living in increased poverty, suffering from severe neglect and having more emotional mental health issues.

The Children and Learning department had a projected budget this year of £58.12 million but is now forecast to spend £67.3 million, leading to a £9.19 million deficit.

This accounts for almost two thirds of the council’s entire deficit of £15.24 million.

Councillor David Fuller, who chaired meeting, said: “I don’t remember where we haven’t overspent on childcare.”

With ‘Covid bringing new challenges to light’, Cllr Fuller added: “It almost seems – I don’t want to say foolish – that we were going to reduce demand or costs this year. It seems a bit odd considering the history of this department.”

Next year’s forecast is predicted to be similar.