It’s that time of the year when local councils everywhere are setting their budgets for the next 12 months. And while figures can vary between councils, there’s an increasingly common thread around the continuing rising cost of caring for vulnerable children and adults.
When Reading’s budget is debated in the Council Chamber next week councillors will hear how the Council is proposing £4.7 million extra for adult social care services and an additional £3.8 million for its children’s services. What sits behind those substantial uplifts are increases in demand for those services, which means more people are approaching the council for support, and a rise in the costs price of delivering them, which is about children or adults needing more specialist support and things like contract inflation.
This year, changes in the Government’s funding formula mean that Reading will receive the second largest amount in Berkshire over the next three years. This is welcome and long overdue recognition that the needs of the local population are higher in some areas than in others. Also welcome is the multi-year funding settlement, the first in more than a decade. This allows us to better plan resources across a three-year period, rather than the previous hand-to-mouth, year-by-year approach. And last week’s news that the Government will cover 90% of the debt local authorities have built up through supporting children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities will be welcomed by councils everywhere. For the first time in a very long time, it feels like we have a Government which is listening to local councils.
That doesn’t mean the challenges have gone away. In Reading, children’s and adult social care now accounts for around 70% of all net service expenditure. As we direct more resources into these two essential and statutory services, we need to find more savings and more income to make up the shortfall. Around £11 million more in savings and additional income is needed to deliver a balanced budget next year which, unlike some other public bodies, every council needs to do by law.
Where a council is unable to balance its budget it can approach Government for something called Exceptional Financial Support. The phrase is a little misleading. This isn’t about Government handing out extra money to councils but instead they are able to sidestep the normal financial rules which apply to councils by using one-off capital receipts, for things like selling land or buildings for example, to help fund day-to-day services. This past financial year 30 local councils received Exceptional Financial Support, including three out of the six Berkshire Councils. It’s a sign of the times that an estimated 74 councils are expected to apply for it in the coming financial year and you may recently seen that, for the second year running, West Berkshire Council has approached Government for this support.
Reading is not in that position thanks to its careful financial planning spanning a number of years, but we also know that rising cost of delivering social care services is unsustainable in the long term.
Also forming part of next week’s budget discussions is Reading Council’s proposed five-year capital programme of investment in better facilities for residents. This is funded from things like capital receipts, successful bids for grants and borrowing and, unless you are one of those councils who applied for Exceptional Financial Support, cannot be used to pay for day-to-day services. So, for example, the money spent to create a modern new Civic Centre Reception and flagship new Central Library is largely the result of a successful bid by the Council for these specific projects. That money is ringfenced and we cannot just use it to pay for the additional pressures in social care for example.
Included in Reading Council’s proposed package of investment is a continuation of our record improvement in new road surfaces; the construction of the Hexagon’s new Studio Theatre; new facilities for vulnerable adults and older people; new children’s homes to reduce reliance on expensive private sector providers; work to increase the number of SEND school places in Reading; road safety measures; more sustainable transport initiatives; new vehicles for increased recycling; the restoration of historic walls at Caversham Court Gardens; and structural conservation works at Cemetery Arch.
Between 2026 and 2029 the council is also proposing substantial investment in its existing housing stock, creating better and more energy efficient homes for tenants, and continue with its major investment in new council homes. Since 2014 we have built 421 new council homes, with firm plans for a further 362 before the end of 2029.
By Cllr Liz Terry, leader of Reading Borough Council
