‘Urgent’ bid to curb spending in budget crisis

URGENT measures are to be taken by Devon County Council to reduce spending as the council faces a near £10 million budget overspend.

Budget monitoring reports, showing the financial status six months into the year, which went in front of the cabinet on Wednesday, showed an £8.15m overspend was being forecast, while children’s services is set for a £9.9m overspend.

As a result, a temporary hold on filling backroom job vacancies has been implemented by county leaders in Devon, which includes delaying filling vacancies for two months after the postholder leaves.

A ban on all non-essential overtime and ending attendance at conferences with associated allowances unless they are externally funded has also been implemented.

The cabinet was recommended by officers, and unanimously agreed, to take the ‘urgent measures’ to reduce overall council spending by £5m when it met on Wednesday.

But they slammed central government for the chronic underfunding of councils which has seen them get close to breaking point.

Cllr Stuart Barker, cabinet member for resources management, said: “Like most other councils, we have an issue of rising demand and costs for children’s services, so we have to take some actions to be able to deliver those services into the future.

“We are not taking action on essential posts, so posts like children’s social workers won’t be affected. We are just delaying the replacement of vacant posts by around two months. If a vacancy arises then it will be filled, but just delayed by two months, and this is for non-essential staff.”

Cllr Barker added that despite the budget shortfall, the council is not in the position that Somerset or Northamptonshire have found themselves in, and doesn’t intend to be.

He added: “I am as confident as I can be that we will meet the budget. We are going into winter now and the bad weather season. If we have a good winter then yes, we will meet the budget. If we have a harsh winter and incur additional costs that we are not expecting at the moment, then will have to reappraise the situation.”

Phil Norrey, chief executive of Devon County Council, said he wanted to reassure councillors, staff and taxpayers about the impact of the savings strategy, saying it was ‘tight and good housekeeping’.

“There are pressures across the country and after around eight or nine years of extreme pressures on budgets, it has to come a point when we reach the end of the road on spending, and that will come in the next two or three years.”

The cabinet heard from County Treasurer Mary Davis that children’s social care is projected to overspend by £6.5m mainly because of increased demand on residential placements and continuing pressure across disabled children’s short breaks service, social work teams and the Atkinson secure home in Exeter.

She added there are also increasing spending pressures in the High Needs’ element of the schools’ budget which helps pay for the care and education of the most vulnerable children, set for a £3.5m overspend, primarily because of rising numbers of pupils with Education, Health and Care plans and the cost of placements in independent special schools and further education colleges.

Mrs Davis though said other departments are forecast to underspend or break even which helps to bring the overall prediction down to an overspend of £8.1m. She said Devon will receive an extra £3.6m from the Government for adult social care to help alleviate winter pressures on the NHS, and that the highways department is forecast to break even.