Council set to be £8m in the red

COUNCIL and health bosses are urgently seeking ways to save money as it’s been revealed they already predict to end the year more than £8 million in the red.

Just two months into the new financial year, chiefs are warning that Tameside’s integrated commissioning fund, which is the combined funding pot of the council and the clinical commissioning group (CCG), will go millions over budget if further action is not taken.

It’s estimated that they will overspend by around £8.7m this year, posing a ‘significant risk’ to both bodies.

The CCG is now submitting a monthly recovery plan to NHS England to report on its progress in bridging the funding gap. It’s thought the overspend will be split between the risk of not delivering £5.1m in savings, and emerging cost pressures of £3.6m.

Director of finance, Kathy Roe, told members of the strategic commissioning board that the combined fund was carrying ‘so many risks’ and the budget was ‘so bad now’ that they needed monthly briefing instead of quarterly updates.

She said they were attempting to get to the ‘nitty gritty’ of the issues, and were looking at service reviews.

But Ms Roe said they had experienced problems because schemes designed to cut costs were ‘struggling to deliver’, especially in the health department.