Savings Monitoring 2025/26

		Gross Savings Achieved	Gross Savings Anticipated	In Year Pressures	Net Savings At Risk	Savings At Risk As A % Of Net Budget
	2025/26 Savings Proposed
Directorate	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000
Families, Children & Wellbeing	3,460	1,841	491	(130)	1,258	1.6%
Homes & Adult Social Care	9,256	5,302	1,961	(397)	2,390	2.0%
City Operations	1,782	0	1,388	0	394	0.8%
Central Hub	1,291	0	1,154	0	137	0.4%
Centrally-held Budgets	0	0	0	0	0	0.0%
Total Directorate Savings	15,789	7,143	4,994	(527)	4,179	1.5%

Explanation and Mitigation of At Risk Savings

Directorate £'000	Savings at Risk £'000	Explanation and Mitigation Strategy
Families, Children & Wellbeing	1,258	The savings at risk predominantly relate to placements for children in care (£1.143m). This is the result of a relatively small number of children with extremely high cost placements due to their complex needs and requirements for specialised care. In addition, the prevailing market conditions have made the current framework contracts unattractive to providers and have resulted in the necessity to make more placements outside of the framework contract at higher rates. A further compounding factor is the ongoing difficulty in recruiting foster carers. The shortage of foster carers makes it problematic to place children in family settings, whether in-house or with external providers, forcing the need for more expensive care options.
Homes & Adult Social Care	2,390	Achieving savings remains challenging amid rising demand and ongoing cost pressures across the directorate. Since TBM4, a positive movement of £0.295m has been realised for housing savings at risk, despite continued difficulties in securing properties within the private rented sector. Key risks include the limited availability of affordable properties, landlords exiting the market, managing out-of-area placements, resident relocations, low vacancy rates, and ensuring landlord compliance.
City Operations	394	The majority of the savings at risk for City Operations primarily relate to income opportunities within Parking Services and City Parks and service redesigns across other service areas. The savings linked to income generation are dependant on the economy and as such will remain a risk for the foreseeable. A saving approved that related to the closure of Kings Road Paddling Pool has now been reversed, this will not be delivered instead will need to be mitigated through other means in the TBM process for City Operations. Where savings are not achievable the service will continue to mitigate through monthly TBM monitoring.
Central Hub	137	The savings at risk for Central Hub is primarily savings relating to VisitBrighton (£0.100m). Reduced promotion of B&H potentially resulting in fewer conferences and reduced incomes for VisitBrighton, hotels and venues which will offset the savings. The other elements relate to coroner and registration services where BHCC has submitted proposal to West Sussex County Council to reduce its recharge for the services as well as Estates Management for Slipper Baths, the risk relates to time delay and costs in disposal of the property
Centrally-held Budgets	0
Total General Fund	4,179