THE councillor responsible for overseeing children's social care work in Bournemouth has said that there is "not enough money in the system" to fully fund the increasingly complex needs of young people.

Cabinet member for education and children's services at Bournemouth council, Cllr Nicola Greene, said that local authorities were facing new and more complicated demands without sufficient funding to meet them.

Her comments following a warning from the Local Government Association that children's social care nationally would reach "a tipping point" unless new funding was found.

Last month Ofsted rated the council's children's services department as 'requires improvement' while its management was deemed to be 'inadequate'.

The watchdog said that its response to child sexual exploitation was not "rigorous" enough and that improvements had been "inhibited" by local government reorganisation.

Almost half of councils' children's services departments are now rated as 'requires improvement'

"There's not enough money in the system to meet all of the pressures and demands we are facing but it is much more nuanced than that," Cllr Greene said.

"The complexity of services we are now offering has increased a lot and obviously these require more expensive support.

"Children are being born and surviving who might not have done even 20 years ago – which is a good thing although it does often mean they need more complex support.

"We have also seen a big increase in the amount we are doing in terms of child sexual exploitation and with unaccompanied asylum seekers compared to just a few years ago.

"It is vitally important work but it is often very difficult work which requires more resources."

Cllr Mike White, Poole council's cabinet member for children and young people, said that while there were pressures on its budgets, its department was "solidly-performing" with the money it had.

"We are seeing more and more children presenting with complicated issues such as mental health and we have stepped up to meet these.

"There are pressures on all of the council's services but it is not as severe as some people seem to suggest."

The LGA has predicted that councils will be facing a £2bn funding gap for children's services by 2020 and has called on the government to provide more money to meet demand.

A government spokesman said: "We want every child to have the best start in life, with the opportunities and the stability to fulfil their potential, which is why we have made £200 billion available to councils up to 2020 for local services including those for children and young people.

"We also provide a further £270 million for councils to develop improvements in their service and create innovative programmes to improve the lives of these vulnerable children."