Council predicting £6.6m overspend for 2025-26

Mayor Ros Jones told Doncaster Council's cabinet the main area of overspend was adult social care

City of Doncaster Council is facing a possible £6.6m overspend, according to the city's elected mayor.

Labour's Ros Jones laid out the details on Wednesday as councillors met to review the authority's performance over the first three months of the financial year.

She told the meeting the vast majority of the money - approximately £6m - had gone on adult social care.

Jones said the council would be taking action over the course of the year to try and reduce the projected deficit in the hopes of reaching a balanced position.

The performance report also revealed a project overspend within the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG), specifically relating to funding for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) - according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Currently, Doncaster Council forecasts a £17.1m overspend within the DSG High Needs Block grant for SEND spending.

A statutory override, recently extended into 2028 by the government, means the DSG is "effectively ringfenced", the report to cabinet said.

It means DSG expenditure does not currently count against local authorities' general budgets, but will once the override ends in 2028.

Reform UK councillor Karl Hughes attended cabinet to quiz the Labour administration on SEND deficits.

He asked: "What specific measures are you taking to prevent these spiralling deficits from overwhelming the council's finances, especially given the statutory override only delays the impact until 2028?"

Jones replied: "In Doncaster, we have worked hard to limit these impacts, opening new specialist provision, and focusing more effort on supporting schools to meet needs at an earlier point, alongside developing strong scrutiny and monitoring processes.

"This council will continue to work with urgency around this overspend, and we have established an efficiency group to look at how we can drive it down."

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