ALMOST £1 million of social services funding in Caerphilly county borough could remain unspent this year.

The underspend is £976,000, including transport costs, according to a council budget monitoring report.

It shows the majority of the underspend comes from adult services, and is largely due to a drop-off in demand for external residential care since the budget was set.

The council could see a £880,000 underspend for all adult residential and nursing care provision, and a £588,000 underspend is projected for the council’s own residential care and supported living.

A report says: “Around £95,000 of this is due to income from other local authorities and the health board who are supporting placements made within Caerphilly residential homes.

“The remainder of the underspend can largely be attributed to an increase in income received from service users.

“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.”

Overall, the underspend in adult social care of more than £1.8m can be partly offset against a projected £951,000 overspend in children’s services.

That overspend is largely due to an increase in independent residential placements for children aged 17-24.

The report also highlights the progress the council has made in relation to £2.2 million of cuts it needed to make throughout 2019/20.

So far, the council has implemented cuts which will deliver 91 per cent of the target.

The remaining nine per cent relates to a review of external day care packages.

The report says: “This review has been undertaken and delivered some savings but new demand for day care packages has meant that the planned saving of £205,000 will not be achieved.

“However, there has been a significant reduction in demand for residential and nursing care during 2019/20.

“Therefore, the proposed saving from the review of external day care provision can be replaced with a saving in external residential care provision thereby ensuring the directorate’s total saving target for 2019/20 can be delivered in full.”

The report will be considered by the council’s social services scrutiny committee on Tuesday February 4.