West Northamptonshire Council could overspend by £3.8 million by the end of the year

A report presented by West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) revealed that the adult social care spend is currently forecast to go over budget by £9.6 million alone due to the costs of the independent care sector.

This year, the Northamptonshire Children’s Trust (NCT) is also predicting an overspend of almost £5 million. Children’s placements continue to make up the majority of the cost pressures due to the volatile sector.

This comes after the trust was allocated a significantly higher budget than last year to avoid following in the footsteps of ending at an eye-watering £17 million overspend. For 2024/25 the budget for children’s services across the entire county (shared with North Northants) was set at a massive £180 million - up from the £150 million budget in 2023/24.

The finance report stated: “Within both adults and children’s social care, demand-led pressures continue to show significant increases in the number of people requiring support and the cost and complexity of these care packages.”

Just five months into the financial year, WNC has used up all of its £10 million contingency budget to lessen the impact of the children’s and adults’ overspends.

Councillor Keith Holland-Delamere (Labour) said the use of the contingency this early in the year was “concerning”.

Cabinet member for finance, Councillor Malcolm Longley said: “The big numbers on there are the children’s trust and the adults directorate. They’ve now stabilised for the last two or three months so that’s actually a very good sign.

“If it stays the same like this we will be fine. As long as something coming down the track isn’t too devastating I think we’re in reasonable shape at this stage.

“Year on year we’ve had overspends from adults and we’ve had overspends from children’s. In each case thus far we’ve managed to balance the books.”

WNC’s budget of £414.5 million was approved in February 2024 and includes £24 million of savings proposals.