Multi-million pound boost for children and adult care outlined in county council budget

More money will be spent on children's services and adult social care in Devon County Council's target budget for next year.

The council's Cabinet on Wednesday unanimously approved a target budget figure that will see spending rise from £542.8million to more than £571million.

The target budget calls for an extra £16.2million to be spent on adult social care and health in the new financial year, an increase of 6.2%.

There will also be an increase of £10.3million for hard-pressed children's services if the budget is ratified, a rise of 7.1%.

And while the revenue budget for highways will reduce by 1.4% from £57.8million to just over £57million, there will be more spending on roads in the capital budget which will not be confirmed until February.

A final decision over the budget will not be made until February, and the council is still awaiting details of the final settlement it will receive from government.

In a report to councillors, county treasurer Mary Davis said that some vital figures were still not known.

In her report, she said: "The provisional Local Government Finance Settlement has not yet been announced but is expected the week commencing December 14.

"The Chancellor of the Exchequer's Spending Review provided more detail than some have in the past, but the council's funding allocations will not be known until next week at the earliest when the provisional settlement is due to be announced. The size of some grant funding streams may not be known until the new calendar year."

Leader of the council Cllr John Hart said: "This year has been unique for council finances with massive extra pressures on our services caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

"Our health and social care services for adults were under immense pressure before COVID-19 and those pressures have not gone away.

"In Devon we have some of the highest proportions of people over 65 and people over 85 in the country and they need and deserve our help and support.

"And our social care support for children and our services for children with special needs and disabilities are facing unprecedented demand.

"We have always said our priority is to protect the most vulnerable in our society and I believe this budget will help to do that. But demand for these services continues to grow at a relentless pace."

Councils will be allowed to raise council tax by 1.99%, with an additional 3% for adult social care, and Cllr Hart added: "I'm not sure we can do anything other than take the 4.99% council tax rise but we will have to wait and see."

Cllr Alan Connett, leader of the Liberal Democrat group said: "This is another year of the social care precept where the government ducking the issue and giving permission for local councils to charge more."

Cllr Rob Hannaford, leader of the Labour group, added: "The massive can of adult social care has been kicked down the road, and we should have got a grip on this some time ago."

The Cabinet unanimously agreed that the content of the Spending Review 2020 be noted and the revenue spending targets for 2021/22 were approved.