Care for vulnerable adults behind £5m overspend

"Inconsistencies" in a council's social care department have resulted in it spending nearly £5m more than it planned last year.

Wiltshire Council's final review of the 2024/5 financial year recorded a £4.85m overspend, which was largely attributed to unforeseen demands of "adult services where people's needs are increasingly complex".

The new Liberal Democrat administration said there were "questions for our predecessors" about this "unpleasant surprise".

But the former Conservative leader said he had "become increasingly concerned" the council's adult social care department had "repeatedly" called this issue a "one-off".

At an extraordinary council meeting on Tuesday, cabinet members will be asked to approve the use of earmarked reserves which, if agreed, will ensure the legally required balanced budget for the year.

At 1% of the total revenue budget, the 2024/25 overspend is above what the authority is used to.

But "the underlying financial position of Wiltshire is hugely better than the vast majority of our surrounding councils", councillor Gavin Grant, the new cabinet member for finance, said.

Rising costs of placing vulnerable children in care have also contributed to the overspend, the council said. The authority's latest analysis found "inconsistencies" in its own data of how adult care costs were being managed.

Mr Grant said the council would "take decisive action" to address the overspend and using reserves was "not a long-term effective solution, but they are in place for this very reason".

His party took control of Wiltshire for the first time in May this year - in a council where the former Conservative rulers had put their financial management at the centre of their pitch to voters.

"There are some questions for our predecessors about how they square the circle of statements they made with the reality that we now see," Mr Grant told BBC News.

Former Conservative council leader Richard Clewer said he had been assured the costs had been under control but the numbers were "jumping all over the place".

"Something's clearly gone very badly wrong inside Adult Social Care," he said.

The council plans to establish a new financial scrutiny committee so other councillors can assess the books in public later this year.

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