Resort taxpayers to foot £9million care bill

Taxpayers are set to have their pockets raided again to help the council with a massive million pound care bill.

Figures have revealed it will cost Sefton Council almost £9million to place troubled children in facilities outside of the borough this year alone.

It costs the local authority an ‘eye- watering’ average figure of £172,000 each to place troubled children in facilit- ies outside Sefton – which would work out to around £8,944,000.

Dukes Ward Councillor John Pugh said that there are 52 out of area placements, 17 of which are from Southport, four from Sefton Central and 31 from Bootle.

He said that he gleaned the information from the Jan 2020 Joint Commissioning Strategy and Market Position Statement and the council’s own figures from cabinet reports and questions raised to the council at meetings.

Mr Pugh believes that the figure is ‘hard to believe – and hard to accept.’

He said: “Eye-watering amounts of money are being poured into the pockets of private providers.