Members of the Cheshire East Children’s Committee have been told that overspends of £8.86m are predicted by April next year, due to the rising cost of residential placements and the setting of ‘unrealistic savings’ in the 2025/26 budget.
Finance officers told committee members that: "Although numbers of children in care are reducing, the cost of placements in 2025/26 has continued to increase, creating an unbudgeted pressure."
In addition, the hold on capital project activity had impacted on potential savings targets such as those related to ‘Safe Walking Routes to School’
Cllr Jos Saunders (Poynton, Con) quickly pointed out that the savings tied in to walking routes had repeatedly failed to materialise over a number of years, as had proposed savings relating to accommodation for 18 to-25-year-old care leavers, begging the question:
"Why do we keep putting in unrealistic savings?"
The new executive director of children's services (appointed in April), responded;
"I think some of the numbers that were put in initially in the MTFS (medium term financial strategy) did not have fully worked-up business cases that demonstrated exactly how children's services would be able to make those savings in the context of being an inadequate children's services within Cheshire East.”
"You cannot just take out swathes of savings without understanding the investment also required in order to improve children's services."
"What we've been doing in children's services over the last three or four months is really going through in detail what the savings profiles are in children's and completely re-engineering our transformation and improvement plan for children's services."
In addition, a significant part of the overspend was due to the accommodation costs for 16 to 25-year-olds which had shot up by 54 per cent this year.” “There's no growth in the budget that would address 54 per cent because you wouldn't necessarily expect that, but it's a direct consequence of an inadequate grading by Ofsted, particularly on our care leavers,"
The executive director of children's services further explained that finding safe and suitable accommodation for those who were previously living in unsuitable places, comes at a cost because the council was spot purchasing. She said the block purchasing, recently agreed at committee, would deliver savings in the future 'but not at the moment because we don't have it now'.
Cllr Saunders said the committee needed to start having realistic budgets and she thanked the new children's Director for being 'so candid', stating:
"We now have some realism, Although the picture looks awful, I would rather have the truth put in front of me so that we can all work together to resolve it, than have unrealistic savings."
Conservative group leader Stewart Gardiner confirmed there were external, extenuating factors but;
“at the end of the day, part of the reason why the spotlight is on this committee is the fact that the budget set was not sustainable and for whatever reason that happened,, I think we have to make sure that doesn't happen moving forward'.
Committee chair Laura Crane (Sandbach, Lab) acknowledged that the council has a legal and moral duty to look after and protect children., stating that the committee had to make sure the projects put forward by the Director and her team were worked through and delivered in the coming years 'to ensure that we're in a better place to not overspend in the future'..
The Conservative Opposition (and some administration) members of the Committee have consistently provided robust scrutiny and oversight of the Children’s Budget since 2019 - highlighting fiscal concerns that so far have been largely ignored.
It is hoped that under the leadership of the new Director and Committee Chair that this is no longer the case.
References:
Belinda Ryan - Local Democracy Reporter 12th Nov 2025: https://nantwich.nub.news/news/local-news
https://moderngov.cheshireeast.gov.uk/ecminutes/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=963&MId=10851&Ver=4
