Council forecasts overspend as ‘cost pressures keep rising’
County’s officers working to address spending challenges
West Sussex County Council has forecast an overspend of £3.775million on this year’s budget.
A report to a performance and finance scrutiny committee meeting laid out the financial position as of the end of June – the end of the first quarter of 2021/22 – with councillors being told that ‘uncertainty is still our theme word’.
The bulk of the problem came from the children and young people and the learning and skills portfolios, which showed £3.1million and £1.92million projected overspends respectively.
Jeremy Hunt, cabinet member for finance, said: “Obviously the team are working hard to contain this expenditure but the cost pressures just keep rising.
“We’re not alone in facing these pressures – many other authorities are in a similar position – but that doesn’t mean we should not continue to try and address this continuing overspend.”
The main issues for the children’s portfolio have been the cost of school places for youngsters with special needs, the cost of supporting vulnerable children and their families and the cost of finding a variety of school places for children in the council’s care.
Mr Hunt called on the children’s services scrutiny committee to work with cabinet members and officers to ‘try to get a grip on these costs’.
The cost of home-to-school transport for children with special needs was one of the areas placing pressure on the learning and skills budget.
As for adult services, Mr Hunt said: “The demands on our adult services are still rising but, thanks to Covid grant funding and the reserve we set aside at the end of last year, the service are predicting a balanced budget at the end year end.
“Nonetheless, the underlying pressures are still there.”
The council’s savings target for 2021/22, across all portfolios, is £18.5million, with a further £3.1million of savings from 2020/21 still to be delivered.
A report to the committee said more than half of those savings targets were either red or amber – unlikely to be met or at risk.
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