Newcastle City Council is currently forecasting an overspend of more than £6 million on its budget amid continuing pressure on the local authority’s coffers. There is significant strain on both the adult social care budget and children’s services as demand and complexity continues to rise.
The council is also seeing significant overspends in the property portfolio and on legal services. It is not uncommon for councils to predict an overspend at this stage of the year, with the figures covering the first quarter of the financial year, and later deliver a balanced budget.
Speaking at Monday’s meeting of the council’s cabinet, deputy leader Coun Mark Mitchell said: “As we go through the year, the numbers will change. For those that have been around this for a while, the numbers won’t be a huge surprise.
“In Children and Families, there are some very high-needs cases. We also have significant issues with adult social care – despite a lot of warm words, the Government fails to actually grasp the nettle of a National Car Service and how we will deal with some long-term issues.
“There are also issues around legal and governance – we are trying to get hold of our legal costs. They are going up year by year and we need a slightly different approach.”
The property portfolio is currently predicted to overspend by more than £5.4 million, while adult social care is expected to overspend by more than £5.2 million. Children’s services is anticipated to have an overspend of £2.5 million, while legal services is predicted to see £1.1 million. These overspends are “partially offset” by underspends in other areas.
Much of the property portfolio comes from spend on significant projects at Eldon Square and the acquisition and refurbishment of Stockbridge House on the Quayside. The adult social care budget has been put under strain by community support services, which is predicting an overspend of £5.2 million due to “high demand for learning disability commissioned services”.
This is due to an increase in clients needing more complex and costly dementia support packages. Similarly, children’s services is facing overspends due to “increased costs of providing services to children in care”. Particularly costly are external fostering placements and external
residential placements, while care for children with disabilities is also a pressure alongside increased costs of staffing in-house residential services.
