Decision

That the provisional outturn position for the Children, Education and Families Portfolio for the 2025/26 financial year be endorsed.

Reasons for the decision

The London Borough of Bromley’s Making Bromley Even Better strategy has a number of ambitions including to manage resources well, providing value for money, efficient and effective services for Bromley’s residents.

The provisional outturn for the ‘controllable’ element of the Children, Education and Families budget for the 2025/26 financial year showed an overspend of £1,292,000 compared to the last reported figure of an overspend of £2,183,000 which was based on activity at the end of December 2025.  The overspend was due to a number of factors including an increase in costs and activity in Children’s Social Care, higher numbers of Children Looked After than projected, placement costs and additional staffing costs.  Senior officers were meeting on a regular basis to scrutinise and challenge the expenditure position and management action was being taken to address identified issues.