Council overspends on social care by £13m

West Sussex County Council overspent on its adult services portfolio by more than £13m in 2025/26.

The figures were shared during a meeting of the Health & Adult Social Care scrutiny Committee on Wednesday, the first since the local elections saw control of the council change hands.

The £13.6m overspend on a budget of £311m was £6.1m lower than the overspend in 2024/25, said the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Richard Bates, cabinet member for adults services, said: "While this is an improvement on the previous year's position, we recognise there is still considerable work to do to ensure long-term financial sustainability."

Alan Sinclair, the council's executive director adults services & health, said: "The levels of need are increasing year by year.

"So although we are seeing a slow increase in demand, what is overtaking that increase in demand is the level of complexity of need that we're having to meet, which automatically pushes costs up."

Another pressure is the costs faced by adult services as young people transition out of the care of children's services.

These include a large number of young people with mental health issues, which Sinclair said was "probably more than we've ever seen before".

Following a request from James Walsh, of Arun District Council, Bates agreed to write to the government about bringing forward the review of social services funding in the country.

Walsh called the financial position of the service "one of the biggest drags on the overall financial stability of the county council".

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