DEVON County councillors have slammed the gross underfunding of local government from Central Government for the state of its ‘perilous finances’.

Budget monitoring reports for the first three months of 2018/19 show that the county council is set to go over budget by £8.1-million, with children’s services showing a forecast overspend of £8.7-million.

Cllr Stuart Barker, cabinet member for resources management, told the county council’s cabinet on Wednesday that there are plans in place to address the overspend but that Devon is ‘not an exception’.

The cabinet heard that although an overspend was being forecast, Devon was not in the position of Somerset County Council, who have been forced to make more than 70 separate cuts, worth around £15m.

Cllr Barker added: ‘We are putting plans in place and other than children’s services, we are coming in on budget. Devon is having the same issues that we have seen nationally where we have an increase in children in care and costs of placements, which have led to the overspend. These are statutory services and we cannot not provide them but we have already met to identify how we can address some of the budget pressures.

‘We have to take a measured view to this as life is not becoming easier to finance local government, it is getting tougher and there are more unknowns.’

The council’s chief executive Phil Norrey said that he despaired at the lack of understanding of the Government Treasury and that the cake that they were providing was just too small. He outlined that extra investment was needed to ensure that youngsters do get the support that they need, with at the extreme end, there being placements that cost £11,000 a week, adding: ‘You don’t need too many of these to cause significant budget pressures.’

Cllr Alan Connett, leader of the opposition Liberal Democrats, said that the root cause of this is the inadequate funding from Central Government.

But he added: ‘I find the report troubling as there is nothing about how the overspend will be dealt with. I am not reassured that we will find ourselves out of trouble from the £8m and that we have a plan to get back the overspend that you are predicting.

‘We are not in the position of Northamptonshire or Somerset, but we are in a perilous position. It is like the person who walks on the seafront when the storm comes in and rather than walking to safety, dares the storm to do its worst. They either get washed away or the emergency services come in to save them and I don’t want either of those to happen to us.’

Labour group leader Cllr Rob Hannaford praised the council for managing to prudently avoid getting into the Somerset position, adding that the financial pressures pointed to the gross underfunding of local government.

Cllr James McInnes, cabinet member for children’s services and schools, said: ‘I want to reassure members that the £8.7m overspend does weigh heavily on my shoulders. The truth is we have worked in a measured way to find solutions to problems and I can assure you we are looking at ideas and options but we don’t want what we do to have a detrimental effect and cost us more money.’

The cabinet noted the overspend forecast and the need to take action to contain and reduce it by March 2019.

The report of Mary Davis, county treasurer, said while it is still relatively early in the financial year to project with certainty what the final year end position for Devon would be, like many other local authorities, Devon County Council was now grappling with high levels of demand for children’s services.

She added: ‘Residential placements are proving particularly difficult to contain within the budget allocated, a delay in opening a new special school means that high needs placements in independent schools within education has also seen a significant increase for the coming year.

‘The fact that it is still relatively early in the financial year does give the council an opportunity to find ways of trying to contain the overspending in children’s services. There is also still time to identify management action in other budgets outside of children’s services that can be used to pull back the projected overspending.’