THE need to keep back funding to use in the winter has been used to account for a £1.5 million underspend in Caerphilly County Borough Council's budget for adult social care.

The council's social services scrutiny committee heard this week the authority's most recent prediction for spending on adult social care in the current financial year is £62.9 million - despite the department's budget being £64.5 million.

Figures from the council’s social services budget monitoring report update showed that social services as a whole has a projected underspend of more than £500,000 in 2019-20.

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But corporate director for social services David Street explained the extra cash was to ensure money was available in the winter, when social care services often come under greater pressure.

The report shows that a third of the projected £1.5 million underspend has come from external residential care.

It also says the council has seen a large drop-off in demand for residential care since the original budget was set. This has resulted in a potential underspend of £597,000 for all adult residential and nursing care provision.

The council’s supported living has seen a revised underspend of £452,000.

The council report says: “The level of this income is subject to individual financial assessments of each service user which can be significantly influenced by the value of property owned by the service users accommodated within our care homes at any point in time.

“As a result, this forecast can fluctuate significantly over time depending on the relative wealth of service users at the time that forecasts are made.”