Councillors are holding an investigation into what went wrong with the Palmeira Project for severely autistic children in Hove.

The project was to have stopped after agreement could not be reached over costings between Brighton and Hove City Council and NCH Action for Children, which ran it.

But the parents went to the High Court and it was eventually agreed that the project should continue operating.

The inquiry, which is both open and thorough, should come up with a series of recommendations to prevent problems such as this occurring in the future.

Already it is becoming clear that the council made a mistake in starting the project without the full terms and conditions being settled.

The parents, whose main concern was naturally for their children, won a victory through sheer tenacity and guts.

But there is a related issue no one has really discussed which will not go away whatever the inquiry decides.

This is the enormous cost of caring for these children who are by no means alone in the city in demanding continuous and expert attention almost around the clock.

Their needs are great but what the council, parents and other agencies must consider is whether there is any way of reducing the costs.

For a council facing a deficit of £5 million, some of it on social care, this sort of problem needs solving if at all possible.