SOCIAL Services budgets at Dorset Council risk being over-spent in the coming year because of unexpected demand.

Councillors have been told that just a handful of children with extra needs can add £1million, or more, to the budget – often for year after year.

A similar situation applies for adult services where the annual increase in the county’s elderly population alone is likely to add ten per cent to budget pressures each year.

Corporate director in charge of finance, Aidan Dunn, told a scrutiny committee that even though an extra £15 million was proposed for the adult and housing budget and an extra £3 million for children’s services in 2025-26, the council might still struggle to balance the books.

Dorset remains one of the lowest funded councils in the country by the Government with additional cuts to grants recently imposed by the new Labour government – and the fear of more cuts to come.

Said Mr Dunn: “My anxiety is that the new Government’s direction of travel is to take even more funding away – which causes me anxiety.”

Cabinet member for finance, Cllr Simon Clifford (Chickerell), told the meeting that the Labour Government would protect its heartland with its policies: “penalising rural and benefitting urban”, he said, suggesting that while lobbying would continue to back Dorset’s financial case it was unlikely to result in a positive result.

Councillors were told that the authority may also have to step in and offer financial support to the council’s private social care providers who have been hit by an increase in the national minimum wage and National Insurance contributions - with some now struggling to survive.

The warnings come while the council is considering a 5% increase in council tax, as well as an average 2.5% rise in fees and charges, from April.

At the same time the authority is about to embark on a programme to transform the way it delivers services which Mr Dunn said would impact on all the council’s staff – with Unison warning that ‘hundreds’ of jobs could be lost.

Mr Dunn said making the changes would come at the same time as trying to deliver services, as normal: “A bit like building the plane while you are still flying it,” he said.