Lincolnshire council’s £7m overspend in care savings bid

Changes designed to reduce the budget of adult social care in Lincolnshire have ended up costing the county council more.

The authority overspent by about £7m last year after introducing a system which allowed vulnerable adults to choose their own care.

The department had set a savings target of around £18m.

Glen Garrod, the assistant director of adult social care, said the savings target had been ambitious.

He said: “The fact that we didn’t make [the target] doesn’t mean that we didn’t make substantial savings in the right direction.

“It doesn’t mean we won’t make the savings it just means it didn’t occur at the time we wanted it to.”