Care cost pressures 'lead to council tax rise'

Essex County Council's cabinet agreed to increase council tax by 3.95% from April.

The Conservative-run authority faces a 15.5% rise in children's care costs and an increase in demand.

Chris Whitbread, the cabinet member responsible for finance, told a cabinet meeting: "The budget proposal continues to grow investment into safeguarding vulnerable children."

But Labour said it was "very worrying" that £30.1m of savings were being made to services like children's.

Children's services include help for vulnerable young children, foster care, early years support, special educational needs and disabilities (Send) and school transport.

Two pounds in every three of Essex County Council's spending goes on adult and children's care.

An extra £65m is being spent next year, taking total spending to £910m in these areas.

The council tax rise will raise £36m.

Whitbread, whose cabinet title is 'Chancellor of Essex', said setting the budget had been "a challenge". He said a total savings of £40m will be made from "changes in the ways we do things, things we have dialled down from doing".

But opposition parties accused the Conservative council of a lack of detail.

Labour's Ivan Henderson said: "When you see the impact assessment, it says at this stage they don't know what the whole impact of those savings will be.

"To me, you don't make £30m of savings to children's services when you don't know what the impact will be on the residents of Essex".

Opposition Leader Liberal Democrat Mike Mackrory said: "Our concern would be: are those children getting the care and support they need from the council?"

The budget report details that £3.6m will be saved in children's services from "best value procurement and negotiating better prices with external providers of residential placements" and £1.4m by placing children in care into a family setting through fostering.

Essex County Council supports 5,750 children and young people through social care and 16,500 adults.

A survey of 1,277 local people ahead of setting the budget found 50% of people want the county council to prioritise services for the majority rather than focusing on people with the greatest need.

Essex County has balanced its budget proposals with £6m of reserves - the council's savings.

Next year, the authority's budget gap has doubled from where it was a year ago to £110m, rising to £279m by the end of this decade. This has been caused largely by children's services and a rise in demand for Send.

The government is expected to announce proposals for the future of Send and its funding this year.

Whitbread said: "We have always had challenging budget gaps, we've always found savings and we have always delivered".

The Budget will be debated and voted on at full council next month.

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