Children and adult social care in Wigan are two key areas the council will struggle to pay for as a result of current financial hardship, a report claims. Due to pressures from the Covid pandemic and the cost of living crisis, the council believes these two social care sectors could be the ones to suffer most considering their growing financial demands dealing with the borough’s most vulnerable people.
The Children's Social Care sector was given a ‘requires improvement’ by Ofsted earlier this year which the council put down to staffing and funding shortages. That appears to be an issue that will continue according to the latest Statement of Accounts - which revealed the level of borrowing had reached £402.885m as of March 31, 2022.
Although this was a decrease on 2020/2021 (£403.048m) the council still believes there is more hardship on the horizon, and these two areas are the most ‘at risk’.
