Pressure on health and social care could lead to £4 million overspend at Sheffield Council

The authority’s acting executive director for resources Eugene Walker told cabinet members yesterday that extra pressure on care and support services was the main reason for going over its predicted revenue budget.

The £4.76 million overspend was calculated for October, and was an improvement of £600,000 on the position a month prior. Mr Walker said the latest figures showed a forecast of £4.4 million after November, and he anticipated further reductions in the overspend as the financial year went on.

In the capital budget, which is spent on infrastructure such as roads and houses, the council is forecasting an underspend of £6.1 million.

Councillors yesterday approved a request to free up £1.65 million to put towards both revenue and capital projects.

Mr Walker said the various council departments were working to make savings and the overspend figure could change by the end of the financial year.

“Everyone is working very hard to try to control expenditure and curb spending where we can,” he said.

“We think we will come down to maybe £3.3 million by the end of the year.”

Mr Walker put much of the overspend on services down to the increasing national pressure on social and health care.

The council’s children, young people and families department forecast a £6 million overspend at the end of October, in part due to an increasing number of cases that social workers had to deal with.

A delay in securing an agreement with the Sheffield Clinical Commissioning Group, or CCG, around contributions to children’s services could lead to an overspend of £750,000.

Demand for learning disability services and long term support, as well as increasing payments for mental health services, means the communities department is likely to overspend by £7.2 million.

The corporate department, however, will save £8.1 million, largely thanks to a £13.9 million underspend that follows a budget review.

Various other savings offset a £5.8 million overspend forecast as a result of a shortfall of CCG contributions.

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