Bromley is facing a significant financial strain in its Adult Care and Health Portfolio, with a projected £9.8 million overspend by the end of the 2025/26 financial year. The Adult Care and Health Policy Development and Scrutiny Committee convened on Tuesday to address the overspend and explore potential solutions.
The projected overspend is primarily due to rising costs in Assessment and Care Management, particularly for care packages and placements for individuals aged 65 and over with physical support needs, memory and cognition conditions, as well as one-to-one packages. Learning Disabilities and Mental Health services are also contributing to the deficit.
According to the Budget Monitoring 2025/26 report, the main reasons for the projected overspend are:
- An overspend of £9.031 million in Assessment and Care Management, attributed to the cost of care packages and placements for those 65 years old and over, with physical support needs, memory and cognition conditions, as well as one-to-one packages. A more detailed breakdown is available in Appendix 2 of the report:
- Physical Support / Sensory Support / Memory & Cognition Services for 65 +:
- Placements: £4.483 million
- Domiciliary Care / Direct Payments: £1.661 million
- Services for 18-64:
- Placements: £1.262 million
- Domiciliary Care / Direct Payments: £0.197 million
- Hospital Discharge Packages (D2A):
- Placements: £1.220 million
- Domiciliary Care: £0.469 million
- Other:
- Staffing: £0.362 million
- Extra Care Housing: -£0.623 million
- Physical Support / Sensory Support / Memory & Cognition Services for 65 +:
- An overspend of £428,000 in Learning Disabilities
- An overspend of £353,000 in Mental Health
To address the financial shortfall, the committee is considering the release of carried-forward amounts from 2024/25, including:
- £1.174 million from the Accelerating Reform Fund
- £47,000 from the Work Safe Project Funding
- £1.473 million from the Improved Better Care Fund (IBCF)
- £3,000 from LD/Autism Funding from South East London ICB
- £2.220 million from the Public Health Grant
- £256,000 from Discharge Transformation Funding from South East London ICB
- £60,000 from the Community Discharge Grant from SELICB Grant
- £54,000 from the Omicron Support Fund
- £313,000 from the Test and Trace service support grant
Specific measures are also being considered to control or reduce the rising costs within Assessment and Care Management. Savings are due to be reviewed and verified before being taken into account in the forecast for Quarter 2. The Director of Adult Social Care has noted that the in-year focus is on mitigating actions to manage down the growth in unit cost price and that optimising domiciliary care arrangements is being taken forwards as a priority, to ensure best value for money from the provider market. The new 'front door', launched on 12th May, is supporting more residents to remain at home by quickly delivering minor home adaptations, making best use of assistive technology and offering more robust advice and guidance as an alternative to going through a full care act assessment, where appropriate.
Beyond the release of carried-forward funds, the Adult Services Transformation and Improvement Programme is expected to result in a net cost/growth to the Council's Full Year Financial Forecast of £876k and £674k for 2024/25 and 2025/26 respectively. However, for the years 2026/27 – 2028/29, net savings are expected of £1,730k, £1,900k and £1,914k (recurring for future years beyond 2028/29). This programme is projected to help reduce the Council's forecast budget gap from 2026/27 onwards.
The Adult Care and Health Portfolio Holder will now review the committee's findings and make a decision on the proposed funding release. The decision will likely be based on the information provided in the Budget Monitoring 2025/26 report, considering the projected overspend of £9.842k and the need to release funds carried forward from 2024/25 to address the financial pressures.
