A cash injection by Bradford Council and a series of difficult savings measures will enable a Bradford health trust to balance its books by the end of the financial year.

Bradford District Care Trust is almost £3 million in the red but the deteriorating financial position is set to be salvaged by income from the Council of £1,634,000, its share of the extra costs being faced by the Trust.

The Trust, which manages mental health and learning disability services in the district, will also use reserves and defer repaying "brokerage" to make further savings, which will enable it to break even.

However, increasing costs faced by the Trust mean it faces a difficult year ahead, its finance chiefs have warned.

The high number of people needing learning disability and mental health services in the district has put huge financial pressure on the organisation responsible for their care.

The Trust must provide care for ever-increasing numbers of clients but with no extra money coming in.

Bradford Council has agreed to help it with extra costs for the first two months of the new financial year to give bosses time to work out the best way forward.

However, it had been hoped the Council would provide continuing extra funds for the extra clients and the decision to limit the help to two months has left finance chiefs struggling to find ways to set a balanced budget.

Philip Gutcher, director of finance at the Trust, said by last month it was overspent by £2,950,000 and he admitted that the financial climate was "very challenging".

He said: "The way that we are able to break even is with Council income and then looking at where we can make savings across the board.

"Each year NICE - the National Institute of Clinical Excellence which sets down standards of care - gives us a certain amount of money.

"This year we had money for improving standards but we have not had changes in clinical practice to implement, so we have used that money - £350,000 - on social care."

Deferring the repayment of brokerage for three years is also helping the Trust to break even. This means using money from areas such as child and adolescent mental health services to pay for areas which are overspent, such as social care.

"The way public money works is that in a single year that is classed as good management but we are expected to rebalance the programmes," said Mr Gutcher.

The Trust has saved £520,000 by deferring the repayment of brokerage and a further £446,000 has been found from other reserves not used or deferred.

l The chief executive of the Trust, con Egan, is leaving to take charge of the new Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Trust.