North Tyneside Council forecasting 'significant' £11.6 million overspend on budget
North Tyneside Council is forecasting a significant overspend on its budget by the end of the financial year.
The latest figures, which run to the end of September, predicts an overspend of just under £11.6 million by the end of April.
While many councils predict an overspend at this point in the financial calendar, North Tyneside’s position has worsened by £68,000 since June.
At Monday’s meeting of the council’s cabinet, members were told that children’s services were a key driver of the projected overspend.
This is due primarily to increased costs for home to school transport for children with additional needs and expensive external children’s home placements.
Speaking at the meeting, deputy mayor Carl Johnson said: “This is a significant challenge. Plans are in place to improve the position.
“Key measures that we already have in place, including a halt on non-essential spending, will continue. All the pressures we are seeing now are especially in social care – demand is high and complex needs drive costs up.
“Our main finance pressure remains children’s services. Increasing numbers of people need support.”
There are currently 55 children in external children’s homes, with 443 in the council’s care.
A report presented to members stated that the pressure continues to be driven by the reliance on “external” children’s homes due to a “lack of suitable unhouse arrangements”.
The council has plans to reduce reliance on costly external placements by expanding in-house provision. Nine new in-house places are planned to relieve pressure.
Pressure on adults social care has also seen a forecasted overspend of £1.5 million. This is mostly related to increasing numbers of elderly people requiring residential care.
Mayor Karen Clark added: “We continue to face financial challenges. We’re working extremely hard to identify appropriate savings.
“I know there has been a lot of detailed work and thinking that has gone into that process.”