Annual Report 2025 to 2026

This year has once again been incredibly challenging for councils across the country. Buckinghamshire has faced many of the same issues currently affecting the wider local government sector, including having to respond to the government’s policy agenda. Additionally, we are dealing with the impact of government funding reforms which have seen funding redirected away from Buckinghamshire to other parts of the country.

Demand on council services continues to rise, causing acute pressures in adult social care, children’s services, home to school transport and housing and homelessness. We have taken steps to address this increased demand, for example investing in our own children’s homes.

Examples of the challenges the council has faced include:

Demand for adult social care continues to rise in Buckinghamshire, driven by longer life expectancy and increasingly complex needs. Contacts have increased significantly since 2021, with the greatest growth in residential care and supported living, linked to a larger over-85 population, more young adults transitioning from Children’s Services, and rising numbers of self-funders with depleted funds. The Adult Social Care Transformation Programme, under the Better Lives Strategy, is improving sustainability and outcomes, supported by the new Transitions Improvement Board. Safeguarding referrals remain twice the level of similar authorities, and we continue to work with partners such as the Buckinghamshire Safeguarding Adults Board and Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub to ensure people receive the right support at the right time.

System-wide pressures persist, especially during winter, but close partnership working with the NHS, including extra social work capacity and integrated discharge processes, helps residents leave hospital safely and promptly. Provider failure remains a key risk, with recent service withdrawals requiring rapid intervention, driven by financial pressures, workforce shortages and increased costs. Prudent consistent financial management and strengthened commissioning and procurement, alongside tools such as CareCubed and the Provider Asset Management and Market Solution, are improving market oversight and resilience. Continued agility, collaboration with the Integrated Care Board and neighbouring councils, and new commissioning approaches are essential to safeguarding vulnerable residents and maintaining a stable provider market.

Children’s Services continues to face rising levels of need, higher demand for specialist support and sustained financial pressures. Statutory intervention remains high, placing strain on early help, social care and safeguarding teams, while the MASH continues to identify risk effectively with stronger multi-agency working. Demand for Education Health and Care Plans has doubled over the past decade, increasing reliance on external placements costing more than £28m a year. The Council has invested heavily in additional mainstream and specialist places but will need to continue to do so in order to ensure children can access a school close to home. Key priorities include meeting statutory assessment timeliness and expanding local specialist provision for children with the most complex needs. In relation to our Children’s Homes, we remain committed to increasing local provision so that more of our children can live closer to home and within their communities. While our ambition is the right one, the scale of the programme, requiring the opening of multiple homes, brings inherent challenges. These include recruiting and retaining a skilled residential workforce and ensuring that, as we expand, we maintain the high-quality, stable and nurturing environments our looked-after children deserve. Our focus continues to be on managing these risks effectively while delivering safe, high-quality local placements.

School place pressures, higher placement costs and national shortages of specialist roles continue to drive financial strain and reliance on agency staff. The Dedicated Schools Grant deficit linked to High Needs pressures remains a risk, despite the government’s recent announcement of funding to reduce the deficit accrued to the end of this financial year, we are left with an estimated £14 million financial pressure. The volume of assessment requests for Education Health and Care Plans continues to increase exponentially, and the cost of meeting children’s needs cannot be met within the allocated budget, therefore the deficit position is forecast to continue to grow, alongside unfunded responsibilities under the National Transfer Scheme. Despite this, the council remains committed to providing safe, effective support for all children, including Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children. Upcoming national reforms across social care, SEND and early years will require extensive preparation, making strong partnerships with health, schools and the voluntary sector essential to meeting statutory duties and delivering coordinated, family-centred support.

Rising numbers of children with EHCPs and SEND, now over 2,000 in specialist settings, continue to drive demand for home to school transport and increase overall costs. SEND transport remains a major part of the budget, and closer coordination across education, transport and commissioning teams is helping manage these pressures while ensuring pupils travel safely and reliably.

Despite inflation, market pressures and increasing complexity, the council is improving efficiency by reviewing routes, strengthening supplier engagement, updating procurement and offering more sustainable travel options. Expanding local specialist provision is also reducing journey distances over time, supporting better outcomes and helping to limit long-term costs.

Demand for temporary accommodation has risen sharply, around 70% since January 2020. Limited availability of lower cost council and housing association options has led to greater use of hotels, where prices have risen above inflation. In response, the council has focused on tighter demand management, improved procurement and stronger financial controls to ensure households continue to be supported safely and appropriately.

Through negotiated lower cost nightly paid arrangements and more disciplined placement management, the council has avoided a significant rise in expenditure and reduced reliance on the most expensive accommodation types. Alongside wider homelessness prevention work and efforts to increase affordable and move on housing, the council is preparing for new legislative requirements, ensuring compliance while maintaining standards. These actions have strengthened cost control and positioned the service to manage high demand more sustainably.

Major national infrastructure schemes, particularly HS2, continue to place pressure on Buckinghamshire’s highways, increase traffic and cause environmental disruption. At the same time, the council is delivering key local transport projects to support growth, improve connectivity and strengthen the resilience of the road network.

One of the largest schemes is the South East Aylesbury Link Road (SEALR), which will reduce congestion, improve traffic flow and unlock future housing and economic growth. While construction has caused some short-term disruption, the council is working closely with partners to manage impacts and keep residents informed, ensuring that temporary challenges are balanced against long-term benefits for communities and the wider county.

National shortages in key professions continue to create pressure, but also opportunities to innovate and invest in our workforce. We are prioritising skills in children’s services, adult social care and education and AI and automation, while promoting the council as an attractive employer with strong career progression, high-quality training, and the benefits of living and working in Buckinghamshire.

We are strengthening career pipelines through initiatives such as Skill Bootcamps, Grow Your Own Talent, Assessed and Supported Year in Employment, the Social Work Degree Programme and Return to Social Work, helping to build a stable, skilled workforce. Agency staff are used carefully to manage temporary pressures or as a route into permanent roles, ensuring value for money while balancing permanent and temporary capacity.

Buckinghamshire continues to face significant financial pressures driven by rising demand and national funding reforms which resulted in a reduction in funding for the county of £44.4m in our Medium-Term Financial Panning (MTFP) period. In 2025/26, the council delivered over £70.5m in savings and income generation, including major initiatives to expand fostering provision, develop in-house children’s homes and secure more efficient home-to-school transport contracts.

At the same time, substantial investment was required to meet increasing demand, £27.6m for adult social care, £30.4m for children’s social care and £7.8m for home-to-school transport. Demand pressures also rose in children’s social care and homelessness, while adults’ services exceeded forecasts but were mitigated by supporting more residents to remain at home, reducing unit costs. Winter weather added further strain on highways, with additional funding being identified to address increased pothole reports.

Despite these pressures, prudent financial management, commended by the recent Local Government Association Peer Review, enabled the council to maintain a balanced in-year position. Looking ahead, the Medium-Term Financial Plan identifies £109m in further savings, efficiencies and income proposals from 2026/27 to 2028/29, including further expanding fostering provision, digital transformation, strengthened procurement and invest-to-save approaches in highways, alongside continued demand management in adult social care and homelessness. Risks remain, particularly around SEND demand and uncertainty over national support for SEND deficits.