SOMERSET County Council is forecasting an overspend of more than £3M this year – even after the cuts agreed earlier in the year.

More than 70 proposals were agreed by the council’s cabinet in September to generate £15M in savings by 2020.

But despite most of these savings being realised, the council still faces spending more than its income in light of pressure on children’s services.

Council leader David Fothergill said he was “confident” that the amount of overspend will come down in the run-up to the budget.

Peter Lewis, the council’s interim director of finance, updated the cabinet on the authority’s financial position in Taunton on Monday morning (November 19).

In his written report, he predicted that the council would end the financial year with an overspend of £3.158M – based upon actual spending up to the end of September and the impact of the cuts agreed in the same month.

This would be nearly £1M higher than last year’s overspend of £2.18M, which Mr Fothergill described in June as “unacceptable”.

Mr Lewis said: “The senior leadership team is currently assessing the additional management action and mitigations required to further reduce this projected overspend.

“A revenue contingency of £3.4M remains largely uncommitted at this time. This means that, should the contingency not be drawn upon, the budget would be balanced overall.”

A total of £57,000 has been allocated from this contingency to the council’s communications budget, after the department failed to deliver its target level of income through advertising on the council’s intranet.

Mr Lewis told the council’s policies and place scrutiny committee on Tuesday (November 13): “Until we see that trajectory of overspend coming down, I am very reluctant to allocate more from that fund.”

Mr Lewis’ figures do not take account of £2.5M in central government funding which has been ringfenced for adult social care.

Stephen Chandler, the council’s director of adult services, said that this “winter funding” was intended specifically for projects designed to free up hospital beds over the winter periods.

He tweeted during the meeting: “Guidance sets out it must support the NHS particularly around delayed transfers of care [getting people out of acute hospitals into their homes or other areas of treatment].

“We are using it to fund additional home care, additional staff linked to hospitals, additional technology support and additional support for people with complex dementia leaving hospital. The money will be spent entirely in 2018/19.”

Mr Lewis’ figures also do not include £9.8M of capital funding which the council received in the UK budget to repair potholes and make improvements to its road network.

Councillor Leigh Redman questioned whether the council “will have to give the money back” if it could not spend it all by the end of March 2019.

Mr Fothergill responded: “We are grateful for the £9.8M, and we will do our damnedest to spend it!”

Mr Lewis said that good progress was being made to deliver both the savings agreed in the council’s February budget and the additional savings agreed in September.

Of the February proposals, 75 per cent of the total savings value has been realised, and plans are in place to achieve a further 23 per cent (leaving two per cent unrealised).

With the September cuts, 86 per cent are currently on track, which could rise to 94 per cent depending on the outcome of public consultations, such as the ongoing consultation about the future of the GetSet service.

Mr Lewis said: “This presents an encouraging picture as we go into the second half of the year.”

Councillor Faye Purbrick, cabinet member for education and council transformation, raised concerns about the lower spending in adult services.

She said: “How confident are we that the decreases we are seeing is that we are dealing with people in the right way, not that we are missing people?”

Mr Chandler responded: “We have been ensuring that people who contact us early are having their care needs met – we are making sure that they are satisfied.

“We are mapping to ensure that we don’t have a follow-up – or if we do, then we realise why that is the case.

“We are confident that we are not pushing people away, or giving people support that doesn’t meet their needs.”

Mr Redman questioned whether reductions in the number of staff within the GetSet early help services would have an impact on the quality of service being provided to children and parents.

He said: “Are we still confident, with the number of GetSet staff that are leaving, that we are still going to be able to provide the same quality of service?”

Julian Wooster, the council’s director of children’s services, responded: “If demand significantly rises, we will review the staffing levels in those areas.”

Mr Lewis added: “We’ve been able to identify sufficient funds from elsewhere in the organisation to put them into children’s services.”

Mr Fothergill summarised: “September was a difficult period, but we have got a grip on the finances. I am confident that the £3.1M overspend will come down.”