North Yorkshire Children's and Adult Services Likely to Need More Money

More money is likely to be needed to fund children's and adult services in North Yorkshire next year.

North Yorkshire Council says it is continuing to see substantial overspends on it's people related services.

Executive member for finance - Councillor Gareth Dadd - says the council has found some other savings this year, but is probably going to have to increase it's budgets for people services next year.

North Yorkshire council says it has made significant savings this year as a result of the local government reorganisation that saw the abolition of the old borough and district council's.

Finance Chief - Gary Fielding - says the new councils larger buying power has helped, but says the savings are being offset by overspends in children's and adult services.

A budget report presented to senior councillors said:

"There is a continuing trend from 2023/24 with people related services forecasting substantial overspends which are offset by underspends within other directorates including a significant underspend against energy budgets in both property and street lighting.

These are in addition to the £5m saving taken from these areas as part of the 2024/25 budget.

These savings will be offered up for inclusion within the 2025/26 budget so, although the current headline figure looks positive, we will see pressure continue for people services and this is likely to require further growth provision in the 2025/26 budget in order to prevent a significant overspend next year."

The report highlights Adult Social Care as one area of significant overspend saying:

"the overall Health and Adult Services (HAS) position across public health and adult social care (ASC) shows a forecasted overspend against budget of £3.8m for the 2024/25 financial year.

Adult Social Care continues to face significant financial pressures largely due to increasing activity particularly with regard to Home Care, and sustained high levels of hospital-related discharge costs which are being passed on to the Council."

"We continue to see very high levels of hospital discharge activity with costs exceeding the additional grant from central government.

The average number of discharges in Q1 was 16.1 per day, a deterioration since the equivalent period of 23/24 (14.7). Over the last 12 months the number of people discharged from hospital that NYC work with has averaged 472 people per month, compared to a pre -pandemic average of 300 people per month. Discharges in Q1 increased to 486 per month.

The number of people discharged with a package of home-based support in Q1 was up 26% year on year, which represented an additional 166 people."

Children and young peoples services have also been highlighted as an area where there are overspends, the report said:

"A summary of the revenue outturn for Children and Young People’s Services (CYPS)  shows a predicted net overspend position of £4.78m for the 2024/25 financial year."

"One of the main drivers continues to be the increased demand for assessments required by Educational Psychologists for Education, Health and Care Plans; there is still a requirement for assessments from external agencies pending the expansion of an in-house service (£750k). Other pressures are the cost of directed remedial payments to parents of children following complaints around statutory assessments (£100k) and the continued pressure around the demand for occupational therapy equipment, predicting £425k over budget"

Spend on Disabled Children's Services for the financial year 2024/25 is forecast to be £1.15m higher than budget.

Spending by the Childre's and Families service is predicted to be £978k over budget and the council's home to school transport budget is expected to overspend by just over £1m.

The current cumulative deficit for the Council is forecast to increase to £44.1m by the end of 2026/27