Savings Monitoring 2025/26

		Savings Achieved	Savings Unachieved	Savings At Risk As a % Of Net Budget
	2025/26 Savings Proposed
Directorate	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000
Families, Children & Wellbeing	3,460	2,311	1,149	1.5%
Homes & Adult Social Care	9,256	5,322	3,934	3.3%
City Operations	1,782	1,463	319	0.8%
Central Hub	1,291	1,170	121	0.3%
Total Directorate Savings	15,789	10,266	5,523	2.1%

Explanation and Mitigation of Unachieved Savings

Directorate £'000	Savings Unachieved	Explanation and Mitigation Strategy
Families, Children & Wellbeing	1,149	The unachieved savings predominantly related to placements for children in care (£1.116m). This is the result of a relatively small number of children with extremely high cost placements due to their complex needs and requirement 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	3,934	The total unachieved savings for Adult Social Care are £2.816m. This is primarily due to negotiations with large care providers who have challenged the no fee uplift policy for 2025/26asked for a review using the agreed CareCubed tool, as well as in-year delays for service redesign programmes however, it is anticipated that the full-year effect savings will still be realised in 2026/27. For Housing, unachieved savings total £1.118m. This position reflects the limited availability of affordable properties and a trend of landlords exiting the market. There remain ongoing risks associated with managing out-of-area placements[GL1] , supporting resident relocations, addressing low vacancy rates and ensuring landlord compliance.
City Operations	319	Most of the savings unachieved 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 dependent on the economy and as such will remain a risk for the foreseeable.
Central Hub	121	The savings unachieved for Central Hub primarily relates to VisitBrighton (£0.100m). Reduced promotion of B&H resulted in fewer conferences and reduced incomes for VisitBrighton, hotels and venues which 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 as a result of the time delay and costs in disposal of the property
Total General Fund	5,523

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[GL1]Why are we saying this?  I don’t believe this is correct