3 days ago
Cheshire East Council: Rising adult care costs behind overspend
Soaring demand for adult social care has played a large part in Cheshire East Council (CEC) overspending its budget, the local authority has government has stepped in to grant the council £17.6m in exceptional financial support (EFS) for said it would use the funding arrangement to balance its books for the financial the largest overspend has been in adult social care, the council also said there were pressures in children's services and rising borrowing costs associated with funding pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).
EFS allows councils to use a system known as capitalisation, which can allow them to borrow money or treat some day-to-day spending - known as revenue costs - as longer-term capital such, it essentially gives local authorities more flexibility about budget has faced financial difficulties in recent years, with the government recently issuing a formal notification of its year, the council signed off a transformation plan which aimed to save nearly £100m.
'Rising borrowing costs'
In a report to councillors, CEC said the £17.6m adult social care overspend was down to rising costs of individual placements.A £3.5m overspend in children's services was attributed to there being more youngsters in care, the use of agency staff, and rising home-to-school transport council said it had come in under budget in a number of areas, chiefly in staffing while there had been an underspend in its highways and transport department, car parking revenues had been lower than services for SEND children are funded through a Dedicated Schools Grant, Cheshire East currently has a deficit in this area, meaning that the borrowing costs to provide them have been forced approved by councillors at a meeting on 3 June, £9.8m of the £17.6m EFS money will be allocated towards meeting the 2024-25 is proposed that £5.3m will be put in an earmarked reserve to cover the costs of CEC's current change programme, while the remaining £2.5m will go into the council's general this year it was announced that CEC was granted £25.3m in EFS for the 2025-26 financial year.
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