Some council spending frozen after 'dire' forecast

Wirral Council leader Paul Start asked if it was “prudent” to ask councillors to approve an extra £1.1m towards services for children with special needs, given the financial situation

Wirral Council has frozen all “non-essential spend” as its council leader said things currently looked “quite dire” for the local authority.

The update was given as councillors were asked to approve an extra £1.1m towards services for children with special needs.

At a policy and resources committee meeting on Wednesday, councillors approved the £1.1m transfer to support services this year and noted that an extra £2.8m was likely needed going forward in budgets for future years.

Council leader Paul Start asked if it was “prudent” to ask councillors for the money given the spending freeze, saying "we know the forecast for this year is quite dire".

The funding will help double the size of the council’s team providing services for people with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) after a notice was issued by the government earlier this year.

A Department for Education improvement notice published on 15 May ordered the local authority to address “poor progress” across 10 areas of “significant concern” highlighted in a 2021 inspection by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission.

The council has been told to improve services by October 2025 or face possible government intervention.

The meeting heard that the council continued to face increasing demand when it comes to Send services, assessments for education, health and care plans tripling from 343 in 2019 to 1,091 in 2023.

Director of finance Matthew Bennett told the meeting the money had already been factored into a previous update on the council’s budget in July.

A budget overspend of £12.5m was forecasted, though measures put in place could reduce it to £3.8m.

Services affected

Send services are considered “essential” spending by the local authority, along with areas like adult and children's social care.

Mr Bennett said that due to the council’s “very challenging position,” a spending freeze had been placed on non-statutory spending that did not have to be provided by law by Wirral Council.

This meant that, while the freeze did not apply to Send services, it could affect services like garden waste collection, car parking, children’s centres, planning enforcement and some leisure services like theatres and leisure centres.

It does not apply to grant funding from the government or Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, such as for regeneration projects in Birkenhead, Seacombe, New Ferry and Liscard and 20mph speed limits and new cycle lanes.

Councillors said they were “disappointed” that the Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board (ICB), an NHS body, had not agreed to extra funding to help cut waiting lists given the need to hire more staff for psychological assessments.

The local authority has raised this with NHS England and the Department for Health after the ICB reportedly refused a request for funding.