A ROW has broken out over Labour's spending plans on child protection in the city.

The Labour group on Nottingham City Council has been accused of "misleading" the public over plans to increase spending on fostering and child protection by £3m.

The accusation from Liberal Democrat Coun Tony Sutton prompted angry exchanges at a meeting of the executive board.

The leader of the Labour council, Coun Jon Collins, accused Coun Sutton of not understanding how budgets work.

But Coun Sutton said rather than increasing spending next year, the council was on course to actually spend less.

The Liberal Democrat councillor has obtained figures which show the actual spending on child protection this year, and the actual spending anticipated next year.

This year, the council will spend £15.6m, next year it plans to spend £14.1m – £1.5m less.

Coun Sutton told Labour councillors: "When you say you are spending £3m more next year people will assume it will be £3m more than you are actually spending now. But you are not planning to do that. You should be clear open and honest with what you are doing."

The dispute has arisen because the two groups are looking at different things.

Labour took last year's budget – that is what it planned to spend in 2009/10 – and added £3m to it, reflecting the increasing demand for foster and residential care places.

However, during the year, the child protection budget has badly over spent, which means the total expenditure this year will be more than the budget the council has set for next year.

But Coun Collins described Coun Sutton's analysis as nonsense. He said every council budgets in the same way as Nottingham City Council by taking the previous year as the base and working from there.

He said to Coun Sutton: "You are misleading people. You are not being honest about what you are doing. When anyone presents a budget they judge what they are increasing or decreasing against the previous year's budget.

"You are trying to score political points in the protection of children and that is pretty unfortunate."

The child protection budget has overspent this year because more children have come into care.

This has been put down to the effect of the Baby P case in Haringey, London, where a child died as result of neglect and cruelty. Since then social workers have become more cautious and referred more children into care.

This year, the council estimated it would have to fund 38 residential care places and pay for 121 placements with fostering agencies. It is now anticipated there will be 52 care places and 153 placements.

charles.walker@nottinghameveningpost.co.uk