Barking and Dagenham Council is on course to spend £20.5million more than planned this year as rising demand and costs for social care services put increasing pressure on its budget.
“Horrendous” costs for private care homes are leaving the council’s budget struggling to “keep up”, a leading councillor has said.
The council says rising demand and costs for care services mean it is on course to spend £20.5million more than it planned to this year.
Labour council leader Cllr Dominic Twomey said “protecting the most vulnerable in our community” remained “massively important”.
The council is on course to spend £13million more on children’s social care than it planned when it set its annual budget in February.
It puts this down to increased demand and rising costs, including the price of private care home placements and the complex needs of the children placed in them.
Speaking to council leaders on Tuesday, 10 November, senior Labour councillor Jane Jones, responsible for children’s social care, said staff were doing “everything they can” to keep spending down.
However, she added: “We have seen such horrendous hikes in service charges for placements and things like that, that the budgets are just not keeping up.”
Rising costs across social care and housing
In addition, the council’s adult social care service is on course to spend £9.7million more than planned.
It also puts this down to high demand for care and rising costs, particularly for people in “high cost” care homes.
Meanwhile, the council’s housing service is forecast to overspend by £2.5million due to increasing demand for temporary homelessness accommodation.
The predicted overspend is partially offset by other departments spending less than planned, leaving a net overspend of £20.5million.
Council papers say: “The council continues to face significant financial pressure arising from increasing demand for social care, rising provider costs and volatility in the use of high-cost temporary accommodation.”
They add that, with four months to go before the end of the financial year in March, there is an “inherent risk that demand-led costs will continue to rise”.
The papers also warn that unforeseen spending or drops in income “could further worsen the council’s financial position”.
Councils across the country are struggling to cover rocketing costs in social care and temporary accommodation. These are services that local authorities are required to provide by law.
Cllr Twomey said councils are “grossly underfunded in social services” and that the predicted overspend is “clearly not a position we would like to be in”.
However, he added: “Most importantly – and it’s not a monetary thing – we are still continuing to protect the most vulnerable in our community, and we’ve always said that’s massively important.”
