Mounting costs facing children’s services have seen Gwynedd Council’s services overspend their collective budgets by £1.8m.

A Cabinet report last week made clear the scale of the task facing councillors as the authority, like many others across the UK, faces a rise in the cost of placements.

At the end of the 2018/19 financial year, the children’s service had spent £1.64m over its budget, a situation the portfolio holder described as “not unexpected,” after having warned of an expected overspend several months ago.

“I have every faith in the service in terms of offering the best possible care for children and young people, which is above and beyond any overspend issues,” said Cllr Dilwyn Morgan, addressing Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting in Caernarfon.

“At last, however, the issue seems to be hitting the national agenda and is not unique to us in Gwynedd.

“I’m pleased that the government seems to be taking notice of the increase in demand and costs and that discussions are taking place.

“This discussion, I hope, will allow us to have a serious think on if the budget we’re provided is actually fit for purpose in this day and age.

“We don’t want to be in this situation every year as I don’t foresee we will see fewer children taken into care in the medium term.”

Chief executive, Dilwyn Williams, added: “For every million we overspend here, we have to find a million from someone else’s budget.

“We can’t turn children away, of course, but we must be confident there’s no wastage and can’t be stuck in a mindset that there’s nothing we can do.

“We must leave no stone unturned.”

Other services also finished the financial year having overspent, but to a lesser degree.

Among these were Adults, Health and Wellbeing (£15,000), Education (£116,000), Economy and Community (£185,000) and Highways and Municipal (£618,000).

However, other services finished the year in the black including Environment (£492,000), Gwynedd Consultancy (£59,000), Corporate Management Team and Legal (£76,000), Finance and IT (£59,000) and  Corporate Support (£61,000).

The report noted: “Generally, despite the sustained challenging need to achieve savings, along with the pressure seen in the care field, the final financial position for 2018/19 confirms that there was effective financial management.

“Of course, this is dependent on the role of the relevant Cabinet members, head of departments and budget managers, supported by our accountants’ professional monitoring work, together with constructive challenge as required by the Cabinet, the Audit and Governance Committee, and the Corporate Management Team.”