SPENDING on adult social care management by City of York Council was more than £1m more than expected.

A report to the health, housing and adult social care policy and scrutiny committee showed considerable overspend in several areas.

It said last year’s overspending on people with learning disabilities would continue, “as some high cost customers did not move into supported living schemes as expected”, reaching about £474,000, while delays in adult social care were “forecast to overspend by £107,000, predominantly in the older people customer group”.

It said: “In addition, older persons’ external residential care is overspending by £321,000 due to a net increase of 20 new customers since quarter two (£236,000), an underachievement of income due to fewer customers making contributions than was assumed in the budget (£64,000), and a £21,000 bad debt write off.”

Council officers addressed the meeting, saying: “Although it’s quite a large sum, we are not necessarily talking about a large number of people. Delays while planning and building are taking longer than originally anticipated. They are quite small schemes, but all individually bespoke. They are still going to come.”

Cllr Michael Pavlovic said improvement had been made in reducing overspending in adult social care, by £653,000, but asked the officers how those savings would be made.

The officers said: “The biggest cost is staffing. Most of that saving will go on target and how we’re making sure we have got the right people in the right schemes. Overall, it will require us to reduce some of the hours but make sure we will share services. The number of residents will be the same, but some of the support provided will be in different ways.”