THERE should be a detailed risk management assessment into Cumberland Council’s children’s services after a predicted overspend, it has been claimed.

Councillor Joseph Ghayouba (Bransty, Labour) was speaking at Tuesday’s (October 10) meeting of the council’s audit committee at Cumbria House in Carlisle.

Members were discussing a risk management progress report and Cllr Ghayouba asked why the risk from an increased demand on the service had been given a rating of 16 when he felt it should have been towards the top end of the scale to represent the greater risk.

He said: “To me that should be screaming 25.”

He was referring to last month’s news that the council is facing ‘significant’ financial challenges with a new report forecasting a revenue budget overspend of more than £28million by the end of the financial year – including £17.8 million in the children and family wellbeing directorate.

Earlier Michael Roper, the council’s acting head of internal audit and risk management, said he would be suggesting areas of the council which could be subjected to ‘deep dive’ investigations.

Cllr Ghayouba suggested the authority’s children’s service should be investigated because of the predicted overspend.

Councillor Andrew Semple (Cockermouth South, Labour) said he was concerned that the number of vacancies within the finance department was affecting its ability to carry out work that was required.

Mr Roper said the team had a ‘wide depth of experience’ – currently there are two vacancies out of a total of five posts responsible for auditing the council accounts.

Councillor Lucy Patrick (Harraby South, Labour), the committee chairwoman, said they could always rely on temporary resources, such as agency staff, if they were needed and added: “I think it’s something that we need to monitor.”

The committee was told by Mr Roper that the risk of increasing demand on the children’s service was initially given a rating of 16 instead of a higher figure because the report was written before the financial position was revealed.

It is hoped that the rating for the service can be reduced to 12 by a target date of March 31 next year.

Cllr Patrick said she felt they would benefit from some risk management training and she thanked Mr Roper for the work that he and his team had carried out.