Social Work Budget Recovery Plan

A robust recovery plan is being drawn up to tackle an overspend in The Highland Council’s Social Work budget, projected to be £3.437 million by the end of this financial year in March 2010.

This assurance was given to members of the Housing and Social Work Committee at their meeting on Wednesday 5 August  when they were advised that the plan and a progress report on the budget will be submitted to the next meeting on 16 September.

Councillor Margaret Davidson, Chairman of Housing and Social Work, said: “We have received an early warning of a budget pressure and immediate corrective action is being taken to recover the budget position.  All non essential spending has ceased and the director is meeting regularly with her managers to bring the budget back on line.

“The public can be assured that our staff will continue to provide a high quality service to the most vulnerable members of the community.”

She said the challenging budget situation was due in the main to underlying pressures being driven by rising levels of need and expectation of service, most acutely with care for older people and those with a learning disability, physical disability and mental health disability.


-ends-