Warwickshire County Council has implemented spending restrictions in a bid to plug a near-£27 million gap in this year's finances. 

The authority will use tighter controls when it comes to managing staff vacancies, the use of agency staff or contractors and even staff overtime, while ability to spend on catering and hospitality, training and development, attending conferences and external venue hire will be hit in a bid to save by March 2025. 

It comes as the latest projections show that the council is set to overspend by £47 million on the services it provides in the financial year 2024-25 – more than 11 per cent of the £401 million budget set.

Council budgets are large and complicated with many moving parts and the gulf is mitigated by other funds, particularly the £18 million already set aside to deal with gaps in the dedicated schools grant (DSG), leaving the overall shortfall just £2,000 shy of £27 million.

A report detailing the current position, published ahead of the matter being discussed by the cabinet – the panel of Conservative councillors in charge of major services areas – this week, cites familiar problems, including rising costs and demand for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) services, home-to-school transport and social care for adults and children.

It means the council will for the first time rely on the statutory override for the DSG, a lever that allows education authorities to offset that individual overspend without it impacting directly on its budget for other services. The debt will still exist but be accounted for separately until at least March 2026.

More than £5.4 million of the overspend relates to top-up funding for children with education, health and care plans (EHCPs), plus more than £8.5 million extra required to cover costs associated with independent special school places.

The report notes how the number of independent special school places funded by Warwickshire has risen from 277 to 524 in three years, while the average cost per place has gone up to £66,000 per year – an increase of 21 per cent in the same timeframe.

The costs of home-to-school transport are £9.5 million more than budgeted for, despite an £8.9 million uplift in funding to cover higher costs. The report highlights how the council was expecting a 10 per cent rise in demand for such services over a five-year period but that it has gone up by 9.5 per cent in the past year alone. 

The most significant overspends in social care are attributed to disabled people aged 25+ (£7.1 million), the older people service (£5.5 million) and mental health services (nearly £2 million).

Placements for children in residential care is more than £7 million over budget, driving up costs in an area where other placements are under budget, and efforts to manage that spending in the long term are creating short-term issues in Warwickshire's own children's homes – they are set to spend £1.677 million more than budgeted due to staffing costs and bringing new homes up to occupancy levels that would achieve a break-even position.

As well as noting the position, the cabinet will be asked to endorse the ongoing financial recovery strategy to try to tackle the problem.