Never mind, I thought, these little sums are keeping up my spirits at such a dismal time.
So, you ask, what sums have you been doing today, Butch? Or maybe, you didn't ask! But I'm going to tell you anyway. Remember our beloved Boy David made that rash pronouncement to the massed hordes of the media - that he would turn around 120,000 families before the end of the Parliament. Well, apart from the necessity of getting cracking immediately at a very fast rate - if he is to achieve his ambition, I'm not sure he has had a chat with Georgy from No 11.
Now - as we know, Georgy gets the shivers when he hears his old mate saying the Government will fund anything - anything at all. Chancellors are a bit like the dragons of ancient times. They gather their gold into a great big pile, curl their tail around it then sit there breathing fire at all and sundry. Well, Georgy is the epitome of such dragon-like behaviour! The other day in the Commons when Boy David said the Government would cover the costs of the rioting for various business, Georgy visibly flinched! Just look at the recording! First he flinches, then he hunches up - then he disappears! Talk about Gollum!
Well, my sums of today are going to make poor old Georgy shudder and shiver. The figures will turn his hair grey! 120,000 families to be turned around - remember that figure. Now Family Intervention Programme costs seem to vary between one local authority and another. However, the following was recently posted:
Family Intervention Projects are at the forefront of the government’s strategy – the Government recently announced a new £26million package of additional funding to extend FIPs to 10,000 families a year.
But 10,000 is NOT 120,000. Already, Georgy will be horrified at the prospect of £26,000,000 coming out of the Treasury pocket! Think again, Georgy, it ain't going to be £26,000,000! That's peanuts! Feed peanuts, as they say, and you get monkeys!
120,000 is 12 times larger than 10,000! So the bill will not be £26,000,000 it will be that figure times 12! So, I grabbed my trusty abacus - as any self-respecting cat does - and after pushing the little beads around - I came up with the grand total of £312,000,000.
Now that's no mean sum of money!
However - that was not the end - no siree!
The Home Office web site stated the following in 2010:
Because family intervention projects differ in the services they provide, so do the costs. The average costs range from around £8,000 per family for schemes which provide outreach services for families in their homes or living in managed properties, to around £15,000 for schemes which include the more intensive services (in a core residential unit). Government is contributing around £5,000 per family of this through funding. Other costs are met from the local authority through mainstream funding such as supporting people and neighbourhood renewal funds.
I grabbed my abacus again! These figures set my poor head spinning! If 120,000 families need £5000 to be turned around then the Government cost could well be - hold your hat on! £600,000,000! Of course - that assumed that additional funding would come from other sources!
If families are in real trouble - as surely the 120,000 must be - and it costs, according to the Home Office figures £15,000 then .... £1800,000,000! At this point my abacus collapsed! As would poor old Georgy, I imagine! You see - local authorities will not have the money to contribute to these schemes - so in order for Boy David's dream of 120,000 families to be turned around - central Government will have to cough up!
Now - we all know there are going to be severe 'cuts'! So who's going to be 'cut' to pay for the Boy David promise?
All these figures have hurt my poor head! Arturo has brought me a sardine to give me some energy! Then, we're off rat hunting tonight. That should take my mind off these astronomical sums of money - which, my friends, we ain't got!
'Bye'
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