Appendix 1: Detailed summary of operational savings 2026/27 to 2029/30 - Children’s Services and Education Operational Savings
Children's Services
| Ref | Description | 2026/27 (£) | 2027/28 (£) | 2028/29 (£) | 2029/30 (£) | Total (£) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OP12 | Admissions professional contract fees reduction | (5,000) | 0 | 0 | 0 | (5,000) |
| OP13 | Emergency foster carers mitigating against the need to place in emergency/unregistered residential accommodation | (437,369) | 0 | 0 | 0 | (437,369) |
| OP14 | Family Hub - use of family hub grant income to support the volunteer service | (50,000) | 0 | 0 | 0 | (50,000) |
| OP15 | Cessation of the family drug and alcohol court programme as multi-disciplinary support is provided at the earliest opportunity | (94,500) | 0 | 0 | 0 | (94,500) |
| OP16 | Implementation of the Families First for Children Pathfinder Programme to support children to remain with families, connected carers or being placed in a lower cost placement | (1,480,219) | (1,480,219) | (1,480,219) | 0 | (4,440,656) |
OP17
| Extend the family safeguarding programme into corporate parenting to support placement stability, reunifications and reduce placement breakdowns | (842,440) | (859,289) | (876,475) | (894,004) | (3,472,208) |
| OP18 | Housing project (full year impact of 2025/26 cohort) supporting children leaving care to live independently by providing multi-disciplinary support | (742,032) | 645,032 | 0 | 0 | (97,000) |
| OP19 | Home to School Transport service transformation programme - review of service delivery and potential efficiencies | (102,000) | (56,000) | 0 | 0 | (158,000) |
| OP20 | Family Help - integration of early help and children's social care management structure | (100,000) | 0 | 0 | 0 | (100,000) |
| OP21 | Turning Point service - early intervention support to families to prevent children entering care, enabling families to flourish and sustain positive change utilising the tools learned through intervention | (230,000) | 0 | 0 | 0 | (230,000) |
| OP22 | Maximisation of supporting families grant funding to fund locality family help services | (24,007) | 0 | 0 | 0 | (24,007) |
| OP23 | Specialist foster care placements (New Horizons) supporting adolescents or children with more complex needs who are harder to place | (788,624) | (524,861) | 0 | 0 | (1,313,485) |
| OP24 | Opening of a new internal residential home supported by DfE capital investment to increase the local authorities’ children's home estate in line with the placement sufficiency strategy reducing reliance on high-cost external residential placements | 0 | (277,843) | (1,944,904) | 0 | (2,222,747) |
| OP25 | Pro-rata savings from 2025/26 relating to the opening of a new internal children's residential home (Chapters) | (87,542) | 0 | 0 | 0 | (87,542) |
| OP26 | Pelsall EDC - decrease in running costs as building now occupied by school | (45,518) | 0 | 0 | 0 | (45,518) |
| OP27 | Review of placement step downs to lower cost placements offering better value for money and are more local to Walsall for the child | (406,000) | (420,000) | (434,000) | (449,000) | (1,709,000) |
| OP28 | Research in practice contract cessation | (14,000) | 0 | 0 | 0 | (14,000) |
| OP29 | Review of sexually harmful behaviour offer to prevent children entering care diverting children from high-cost placement and responding to higher demand in this area | (211,000) | (152,000) | 0 | 0 | (363,000) |
| OP30 | Youth Insight - supporting adolescents with complex needs to prevent them entering care | (2,181,120) | (2,181,120) | (2,181,120) | 0 | (6,543,360) |
| OP31 | Recruitment & retention of internal foster carers as part of our placement sufficiency strategy | (667,268) | (680,613) | (694,226) | (708,110) | (2,750,217) |
| OP32 | Further review of Dedicated Schools Grant to be used for qualifying expenditure currently funded from general revenue budgets e.g. send commissioning / send finance | (130,294) | 0 | 0 | 0 | (130,294) |
| Total Children's and Education | (8,638,933) | (5,986,913) | (7,610,944) | (2,051,114) | (24,287,903) | |