Task force to tackle social service overspending

A task force will be set up to look at Gwynedd’s crippling social services overspend, councillors have been told.
Meeting on Tuesday, a meeting of the cabinet heard that its adult and children’s services were expected to finish the year having blown their budgets by a combined £4m.
Forecast to overspend by £1.8m by the end of 2019/20, the adult service’s budget busting is blamed on a failure to realise savings schemes worth nearly £1m, but also on increasing pressures on the supported accommodation budget.
The children’s service, meanwhile, is expected to far exceed this and is expected to overspend by £3.2 million – up from the £2.9m predicted in the last quarter.
With £2.6m of this blamed on increasing demands for out-of-county placements, this mirrors an issue faced by several authorities across Wales and beyond.
The portfolio holder for finance, Cllr Ioan Thomas, told cabinet members that the predicted overspend in the adults service had been brought down to £658,000 following a successful grant application and the use of one-off
funding.
But the report confirmed that the Chief Executive has already called a meeting of the relevant officers and commissioned work in order to gain “a better
understanding and a clear response programme.”
“To try and address this overspend in the future,” the report added,  “additional resource has been allocated as part of the bidding process for the 2020/21 budget.”
On the issues facing the children’s and families department, meanwhile, it was confirmed that a children’s budget task force has been commissioned to “address the complex financial issues,” with the intention of reporting back to the cabinet with a resource plan.
Cllr Thomas added that many departments had encountered issues as part of the £32m of cuts imposed on various departments since 2015.
“Obviously some departments are facing significant challenges this year,” he added.
“The Chief Executive has set up a task force to look at the children’s service and we are looking forward to its findings, but in truth we are not any different to any other authority in north Wales in encountering such difficulties within these departments.”
Gwynedd’s head of Children and Supporting Families said last year that it was “a market for the providers” and that councils were left with “little choice” but paying the often high fees demanded by providers fully aware of the scarcity of such specialist facilities closer to home.

By Gareth Williams – Local Democracy Reporter