Bexley Council is facing a £2.1 million overspend and has initiated a transformation plan, Making Bexley Even Better: Transforming Council Services for our Residents,
to tackle financial challenges and enhance services for residents. The plan aims to deliver better value by improving responsiveness and service delivery, reducing the time and cost of customer enquiries, developing greater insights into the needs of residents, and enabling more self-service options.
The Public Cabinet convened on Thursday, 10 July 2025, to discuss budget monitoring reports, the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS), and the transformation programme aimed at streamlining council services. The meeting's agenda and public reports pack are available online. Agenda frontsheet Public reports pack
According to the Budget Monitoring Report 2025/26, the council is forecasting a £2.114m overspend against a net budget of £234.759m. This figure comes after allocating £11.5 million of growth initially allocated last year. The main areas contributing to the overspend are adult social care (£3.3 million) and children's services (£1.8 million).
The Public Cabinet also received an update on the MTFS, which forecasts a medium-term budget gap of £32.658m for 2026/27, potentially rising to £43.893m by 2028/29. Key pressures include contract inflation, staff recruitment and retention, and increasing demand for adult and children's social care. The MTFS actions that will be implemented alongside the transformation programs include service reviews, technical accounting reviews, and reserve reviews.
To address these financial challenges, the council is embarking on a transformation programme titled Making Bexley Even Better: Transforming Council Services for our Residents.
The report pack set out a number of options for transforming council services, including:
- Do nothing
- In-service management of pressures
- Single transformation programme
- Balanced approach to transformation and in-service management
The report recommended a balanced approach to transformation and in-service management, which involves targeted investment in defined transformation programmes, alongside MTFS actions. The five key programmes for the first phase of the transformation are:
- Customer Experience
- Children's Services
- Commercialisation
- Culture
- Corporate Core
The Customer Experience program includes the introduction of a sector standard customer contact model and a Customer Relationship Management System.
The Children's Services transformation program includes actions to address the high cost of placements, such as improving the commissioning approach to high-cost placements, ensuring placements are appropriate, and being clear about expectations of the market. It also involves moving more services into the voluntary sector.
The transformation programme is not just about financial interventions, but also about delivering better value for residents. According to the report pack, the council is committed to serving Bexley residents efficiently and effectively, and that the ongoing financial challenge means that the council must continue to find new ways of working.
Councillor David Leaf, Deputy Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Resources, assured members that the data from the out-term position continues to be analysed and used to inform medium-term planning.
Councillor Chris Taylor, Cabinet Member for Children's Services, noted that the key part of his overspend was on placements, and expressed frustration at the cost of placements. He also noted that the department was stepping up for Bexley residents by delivering an underspend in staffing.
Councillor Melvin Seymour, Cabinet Member for Adults' Services and Health, drew attention to the increased demand in adult social care and health, but also highlighted positives such as fewer people going into dementia care and increased numbers of people on direct payments.
Councillor Richard Diment, Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods, made a plea for residents to make more effective use of recycling facilities to save money on incineration costs. He stated that If people made use, more effective use of our recycling facilities, we would significantly save the money that we have to spend with the waste that goes into incineration.
