Havering is forecasting an overspend of more than £2million in adult social Care (ASC) for 2022/23, council officers have said. 

In a report published ahead of last week’s (March 9) Havering Council people overview and scrutiny sub-committee, officers predicted an overspend of £2.281m, with the service to cost £75.684m by the end of March against a planned £73.403m. 

It was added that the key pressure areas are in provisions “across all main service areas: physical support; mental health; and learning disabilities”. 

Some savings in ASC have been made, with targeted reviews "a focused programme of work", the report said, achieving a total of £1.41m by February. 

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However, several “cost drivers” are listed as pushing the spending up.

These are increases to complexity, with people needing more hours of care per week, hospital discharges, provider cost increases, growing waiting lists, and issues with transitions, as individuals are moved from children’s social care to ASC. 

This is against a national picture in which, according to the Association of Directors of Adult Social Care’s autumn survey published last November, ASC is in a "significantly" worse position than in the same period in 2021, wrote officers.