Northumberland County Council has managed to deliver a balanced budget for the last financial year, even though key departments experienced significant overspends. Both adult social care and children's services exceeded their budgets by more than £4 million each.
Overspends and Offsetting Underspends
In December, council officials had forecast an overspend of £1.7 million by April. However, underspends in other areas were sufficient to counterbalance the financial pressures. Adult social care overspent by £4.25 million, partly due to nearly 300 residents requiring care packages costing over £100,000 annually. Children's services overspent by £4.98 million, largely driven by expensive out-of-county placements for looked-after children.
Council's Response
Speaking at Tuesday's cabinet meeting, finance portfolio holder Councillor Nick Oliver stated: "Officers have done their best to bring us in at a balanced budget. We have come in with no overspend. The pressure is in the same places that it has always been, and that is true of all councils."
He highlighted the growing demand: "We have had huge pressure on adult social care and we have seen a £4.25 million overspend despite the fact that we increase the budget every year. Demand keeps growing and growing." He noted that 276 packages cost the council more than £100,000 each, with 222 of those involving adults with learning disabilities, averaging £174,000 per package.
Regarding children's services, Oliver said the £4.98 million overspend could have been worse without proactive measures to develop local capacity. "The position would have been millions of pounds worse off if we hadn't done that," he added.
BEST Programme Update
Councillor Oliver acknowledged that the council's BEST programme—aimed at modernising services and reducing costs—is slightly behind schedule. However, he expressed confidence: "We are slightly behind on BEST, but I'm calm about that. These are timing issues. We have seen £9.5 million of financial benefits this year alone. A lot of it is coming to the implementation phase—we will see some significant improvements this year."
