A councillor at Bradford Metropolitan District Council has said the authority could risk a section 114 notice as its children’s services department estimated an overspend of £33.8m in the 2022/23 budget.
At a council meeting last week, Cllr Mike Pollard, conservative group chief whip at Bradford Council, highlighted a report that forecast a £55.9m overspend of the authority’s £388.5m net revenue budget for 2022/23.
He said: “About £20m of the estimated overspend is due to the extraordinary impact of inflation above budgeted levels.
“However, where does the other £35m snag arise? Most of the answer is a £33.8m estimated overspend on children’s services.”
The report by Chris Chapman, director of finance at Bradford Council, outlined that the overspend is mainly derived from children’s social care related services.
He said the overspend is due to the number of children in external residential care increasing from 70 in 2020/21 to 105 in 2021/22.
At the meeting, Cllr Pollard pointed out that this year’s budget seemed to assume that only 75 children in residential care would need external placements, which is significantly lower than the actual figure.
“It is simply not credible to conclude that there were only 75 such children in the system at the time, rather than the 105 shown in last week’s report.”
The 2022/23 council budget was nonsense and that is a scandal.
Section 114 notice
Pollard said that due to the council’s failure to predict the demand for external placements the council could face a section 114 notice, which is issued by a chief finance officer when an authority is unable to balance its budget.
He said: “The 2022/23 council budget was nonsense and that is a scandal.
“What I can reasonably do is to ask that a serious look be taken at the management structures of the council, one apparently staggering in the direction of a section 114 notice within a couple of years.”
In response to Pollard’s statement, Chapman said: “The reference to the predicted 75 cases is an incorrect assumption from an internal document regarding the level of budgeted placements prior to the allocation of the additional budget approved in 2022/23, and the progression of the sufficiency strategy approved by the executive.”
He highlighted that residential placements cost on average £250k for each child per year, and the average cost of a placement has risen dramatically from £3,600 per week in 2020/21 to £4,800 in 2022/23, which explains the overspend.
He added: “The council approved additional funding for children’s social care in its 2022/23 budget, since then the demand for these services continues to increase due to a number of factors including pressures on some of our families in the aftermath of Covid-19 and the current cost of living crisis.
“Additionally, charges from private providers have increased by over 30% since April which is subject to national review by the Competition and Markets Authority.
“These unforeseen pressures have led to forecast budget overspends.”
What I can reasonably do is to ask that a serious look be taken at the management structures of the council, one apparently staggering in the direction of a section 114 notice within a couple of years.
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