Croydon's social care services are facing significant financial strain, with a forecast overspend of £5.3 million, or 3.2%, against a budget of £164 million, according to a report presented at the Scrutiny Health & Social Care Sub-Committee meeting on Tuesday, 8 July 2025. The report to scrutiny on ASCH budget details the financial pressures and planned mitigation strategies.
The overspend is primarily attributed to rising care costs and increasing demand for home care, as well as the high demand and levels of need from acute hospitals. The increasing cost of nursing and residential care beds for new placements is also a significant factor.
To manage the demand for home care services and reduce pressure on acute hospitals, the council is implementing several measures. These include the integration of health and social care services via the Discharge Transformation Programme to ensure residents receive care and support via the correct discharge pathways. This programme supports enablement and reablement by increasing and remodelling the current intermediate care bed service, improving the reablement service, and ensuring all residents have access to community health services. The Adults Living Independently transformation programme also aims to support residents to increase their independence wherever possible, enhancing their outcomes and quality of life while reducing reliance on commissioned care services.
Adult Social Care Operations are forecast to overspend by £7.1 million, which is partially offset by an underspend of £1.8 million in Adult Strategic Commissioning, Policy and Improvement. This underspend is attributed to contract underspends of £1.0 million, overachievement of income of £0.6 million, and a staffing underspend of £0.3 million.
Despite the financial challenges, the Adult Social Care and Health (ASCH) Directorate is forecast to deliver its £5 million savings target in 2024-25 on placements and care packages through demand management, commissioning and review of care packages. The specific demand management strategies, commissioning changes, and care package reviews being implemented to achieve this target were not detailed in the meeting, but are expected to be outlined in future reports.
Despite the overspend, Croydon's Adult Social Care and Health Directorate is working to deliver savings targets and improve services for residents. The situation reflects increasing care costs being experienced nationally and regionally.
