SOARING adult social care costs have become Thurrock Council's biggest financial challenge, councillors have been told.

Adult social care is forecast to cost £14.4 million more than budgeted this year, mainly because placement costs are rising and planned savings are not being delivered.

The council plans to use £9.6 million from its reserves to reduce pressures, cutting the service's overspend to £4.8 million.

Taking the use of reserves into account, together with offsets through savings and additional funding, the council is still forecasting an overall overspend of £3.48 million by the end of March 2027.

Because of the recently highlighted problems in getting accounts signed off, there remains a degree of guesswork about what Thurrock actually holds in its reserves, but a most recent estimate is it has £216.168 million in usable reserves and £705 million in unusable reserves.

The council's last recorded external debt, in March this year, was £846 million but it has recently been confirmed it will get £200m from government to take a big bite out of that. Other recent asset disposals have also eaten away at the debt, which may have fallen as low as £450 million.

However, the cost of servicing the debt interest, which will come down thanks to the government's help, is expected to be around £63m - which puts into context the fear of rising operational costs and the need to ensure budgets like adult social care are reined in as much as possible.

Reporting to the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny committee, cabinet member for finance Sara Poyntz said: "Whilst most services are operating within budget, significant financial challenges remain in adult social care and the delivery of the savings programme.

"These pressures are being actively managed but reinforce the need for robust savings delivery, continued expenditure control and sustainable solutions to ensure a balanced 2027/28 budget and sustainable medium-term financial strategy."

Council officer David McNamara told members that adult social care remained the authority's biggest financial pressure.

"Adult social care remains the council's most significant financial pressure. Nearly half of the 2026/27 programmes are currently at risk or off track," he said.

There are also fears for the children's social services budget, outlined in this recent Thurrock Nub News story.

Conservative councillor Qaisar Abbas called the figures "very alarming" and asked what had changed since the budget was approved earlier this year.

Mr McNamara said the budget had not anticipated the scale of rising care costs.

"There was growth put into the budget of £3 million," he said. "At that point in time, adult social care was identifying a balanced outturn for 2025/26. As it happens they ended up with an overspend of approximately £3 million.

"We know, looking back, that expenditure on external placements during that time increased by £4 million. The forecast for the current year shows that it's going to increase by a further £6 million."

Mr McNamara said the council's long-term finances still depended on government support. However he added more support is expected as the authority continues its recovery programme.