Cash-strapped Derbyshire council is ‘battening down the hatches’ after two ‘horrendous’ years

Financially-troubled Derbyshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Efficiency has told how the authority is ‘not out of the storm’ and it is ‘battening down the hatches’ and it has got to be careful not to ‘sink’ as he presented the authority’s final budget report for the 2024-25 financial year.

The council recently voted at a Full Council meeting to note and accept the council’s plan performance and revenue outturn position for 2024-25 after considering a report of the Performance Monitoring and Budget Monitoring Outturn at the end of the final and fourth quarter of the last financial year ending on March 31st.

Derbyshire County Council’s former Conservative administration before the May election had claimed it was on track to achieve over £31m of savings by the end of the 2024-25 financial year with cutbacks to manage a previously forecast budget deficit of over £39m for the 2024-25 financial year while identifying £18.6m of further necessary budget savings for the 2025-26 financial year to set a balanced budget.

Cllr John Lawson, the newly inaugurated Reform-led council’s Cabinet Member for Efficiency, told the July 9 Full Council meeting: “Nobody, I do not think, on the Reform side here underestimates the challenges we have got in trying to steady the ship.

“Going on with my nautical theme – we are not out of the storm. We are kind of battening down the hatches to a certain extent and that is probably what happened a lot in the last 12 months I suspect but we have got to be careful we do not sink, basically.

“That’s the critical issue and we have certainly got to make sure we deliver those necessary services all the people of Derbyshire have come to expect from us.”

The latest report came before the current Reform council administration was elected in May and Cllr Lawson previously told a Cabinet meeting that generally there has been a positive result on the balance of things particularly compared to the previous two years with a slightly favourable net actual underspend of £0.582m as of March 31st, 2025, against the approved Revenue Budget for 2024-25. 

However, he also pointed out that there are £3.319m of expenditure commitments which are to be potentially carried forward and could result in a slight deficit giving a net overspend for the year of £2.737m. 

The Children’s Services and Safeguarding and Education portfolio incurred a significant overspend of £27.333m, according to the report, with an outturn overspend at the fourth quarter of the year for Adult Social Care of £21.127m, but Cllr Lawson has previously explained this has been offset by the corporate budget’s 33m under spend. 

The report also explained that the council’s departments were able to deliver most of the planned savings for 2024-25 achieving £29.185m but these were offset by the overspend on Adult and Children’s Social Care services while increasing demand and cost pressures resulted in actual expenditure for these services being significantly more than budget. 

Derbyshire County Council assessed 33 Strategic Objectives in its Council Plan against an expected position by March 31, 2025, and Cllr Lawson explained 70 per cent had either been completed or showed good progress and outcomes, and a further 30 per cent required a review due to reasons including an increase in service demand, pressure on budgets and capacity, and delays with Government funding and challenges to Government policy. 

Cllr Lawson explained that key measures have been identified by the council to support strategic objectives and he highlighted a number of significant achievements during 2024-25 across a wide range of services.

These include 19,990 crisis payments totalling over £1.6m supporting families via the Derbyshire Discretionary Fund, as well as providing stable homes for over one-thousand children in the council’s care while helping more to return to the their families, and it has supported over 23,500 people to live independently for as long as possible so they can remain within their communities.

Cllr Lawson added that the council has also delivered a £170m highways investment programme supporting the maintenance and improvement of over 3,380 miles of roads.

However, he also highlighted the challenges which continue to face the council including meeting the necessary improvements for youngsters with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, the recruitment and retention of social workers and occupational therapists and the ongoing financial pressures on Adult Social Care and children’s services.

The council has introduced a redesign of adult social care with the planned sale of nine of its care homes to reduce direct council provision of residential care for older adults and to create an increase in direct provision for dementia care with an external analysis to validate the council’s position and to provide further recommendations.

Other areas of concern include volatile weather conditions particularly after the storms in 2023-24 causing damage and a need for considerable work during 2024-25 with road repairs but a new system is allowing for significant progress to ensure the ‘right fix, first time’, according to Cllr Lawson.

The council’s report also stated that it is making progress on drawing up the plan which will set out how the Dedicated Schools Grant will be brought back into balance and it will be shared and discussed with the Education and Skills Funding Agency and with the Schools Forum.

It also noted that for several years, the council’s spend has been in excess of budget, with an unsustainable reliance on reserves with £132.431 million used over the past three years between 2022-23 to 2024-25. 

Work is now ongoing, according to the council, to assess consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers’ findings against the council’s Change Portfolio and to identify a plan to implement recommendations. 

The council says it has recognised the need to become more efficient and effective through the centralisation of support functions, digital improvement, a Finance Improvement Programme, and changes to the council’s Charging Policy in Adult Social Care and Health. 

Green Party Leader, Cllr Gez Kinsella, said he was pleased to see the budget position is not as ‘disastrous’ as expected but he was concerned to learn problems with Adult Social Care and children’s services still appear to be unresolved and he added that he will be interested to see what is planned for highways and transport. 

Conservative Cllr Wayne Major said he looks forward to hearing more from the Reform administration on how it is going to deal with the financial pressures and how its efficiency report is coming along bearing in mind the council’s desire to freeze or reduce council tax.

Independent Group Leader, Cllr Ruth George, also urged the council to look at improving community transport in a sustainable and positive way.

Cllr Alex Dale, Conservative Group Leader, said he was still concerned about the challenges facing Adult Social Care, children’s services and SEND that may well need national reform and he was not yet convinced how the council is going to champion Derbyshire on a national stage.

But Cllr Lawson argued the council does not underestimate the challenges it faces including national issues as well as the Government’s proposed Local Government Reorganisation plans to introduce unitary councils but he stressed the authority has to work within Derbyshire and these are its limitations.

He said: “We should not forget where the council was in the previous two years and I liken it to a storm – a nautical thing I know, but the previous two years must have been horrendous in the running of the council.”