SOCIAL care bosses at Surrey County Council are expected to miss their savings targets this year as they deal with the pressure of trying to find budget cuts of £44.9 million.
According to an Adult Social Care Select Committee report into the adult social care budget for 2014/15, around £7.9 million has already been achieved from what officers have described as a "significant savings" challenge and another £18.7 million is currently on target to be saved by the end of the year.
But issues have been identified with £12.3 million in potential savings and £4.9 million in savings have now been described as "at risk" by officers after extra demand for adult social care services put pressure on the department, resulting in an overspend of £1.9 million.
The report, written by Paul Carey-Kent, strategic finance manager for adult social care and public health at Surrey County Council, concludes: "There are significant risks in the budget position, such that an overspend is expected."
The savings target comes as the council tries to deal with an increase in need for adult social care services and officers are now attempting to find areas where savings can be made which will not affect services.
A Surrey County Council spokesman said: "Thanks to savings achieved in previous years, we have been able to increase the support to Adult Social Care by £16 million (4.5 per cent) from 2013/14 to 2014/15.
"However, we still need to make savings of over £44 million this financial year to deal with inflationary and demographic increases and contribute towards the overall savings the council requires to compensate for reductions in national grant.
"We plan to achieve these savings without any reductions in service through such measures as our friends, family and community programme, widespread use of re-ablement (helping people regain the ability to look after themselves following illness or injury), getting the best contract rates through negotiation with suppliers, closer partnership arrangements and continuing a shift from residential to non-residential care."
