Shropshire Council forecast to overspend by more than £1m

The quarter two financial monitoring document, which will go before cabinet next week, identifies a number of areas where savings have not been achieved.

The authority needs to save £15.5m in 2018/19 but the report indicates £2.74m will currently not be met.

Responsible officer James Walton says it is however possible to bring the overspend down to £1.287m.

The report asks cabinet members to recognise the potential overspend and consider a suggested management action plan that could be taken to reduce the forecast overspend to nil.

It says: "The figures show that 54 per cent of the 2018/19 savings required have been rated as green with a further 29 per cent with plans in place to be delivered.

"Managers have provided assurance that plans are in place to deliver the savings that have been categorised as amber, however as evidence of the delivery has not yet been identified, there is still a risk that these savings could impact on the outturn position for 2018/19."

The savings which are not expected to be delivered in quarter two relate to adult social care, education and efficiencies in administrative buildings.

An overspend of £1.59m is forecast in the adult social care sector - the largest noted in the report. The council has seen about 1,072 new clients since April 1 which as cost in the region of £8.5m.

The report says ongoing pressures on the budget include increased numbers of residential and foster placements and increased agency costs, unachieved saving carried forwards from previous years relating to family hubs, a projected reduction in income from Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group in adult social care and concessionary fares and unachieved savings relating to CCTV provision.

It adds: "Some ongoing savings have been identified to mitigate these pressures, but these equate to approximately 1 per cent of the level of the pressures. Therefore, significant further work is required within service areas to find an ongoing basis for managing and funding these pressures so that further growth is not required leading to an increase in the funding gap."

Mr Walton has recommended the council apply for additional one-off sources of funding and apply an 'in-year' spending freeze.