Cheshire East says measures to reduce overspend starting to work

Interim finance boss Adele Taylor was reporting on the first financial review of 2024/25 to yesterday's (Thursday) meeting of the corporate policy committee.

Ms Taylor said: “The overall position for the council is an overspend of £26.5m against a revised revenue budget of £387.6m - and this is based on our spending activity as of the end of July.”

Adele Taylor (Image: Cheshire East Council) She said the council was working to reduce this and added: “I can confirm that these mitigations are making an impact.”

She said when the next report – the second financial review period - goes to committee in November ‘we're expecting an improved position’.

The significant overspends are in adult social care, which is expected to be overspent by about £20m at the end of the financial year and children’s services, at £7m.

Ms Taylor said: “I think it's really important to understand that, particularly with a budget like adult social care, it is based on demand, and it will depend on the number of people coming through the front door and mitigation.

“In terms of adult social care, I think we have to recognise the scale of the challenge, and it is a challenge that is being felt nationally, so it isn't just Cheshire Easter being impacted by this.

“What I will say is that [with] the actions that we are taking we're starting to see some movement in those forecasts.

“So it is things like the work we are doing around better commissioning, we're also starting to see some of the impact of the charging policy.”

But she said the council as a whole needed to pull together to make savings.

Council leader Nick Mannion said: “I think we're left with no doubt of the challenges we are facing.”