AROUND 60 per cent of Council Tax raised in Bradford is spent on social care - a meeting has been told.

The figure was revealed when Bradford Council’s Executive were being given an update on the Council’s finances on Tuesday.

The meeting came as there was a huge national debate over how the straining social care is paid for in the future.

Bradford Council Leader Susan Hinchcliffe that it was “frustrating” that in this national debate there was little acknowledgement that it was Councils that bore a huge brunt of the social care cost.

The medium term financial strategy update at the meeting looked at spending so far this financial year, and expected spending in the coming years.

Finance officer Chris Chapman told members that currently there was uncertainty over future funding, as it was dependent on future Government funding plans for local Councils, the impact of Brexit, future impacts of Covid and the upcoming changes to social care funding.

He said as things currently stood, Bradford Council faced a £13.4 million budget gap in the coming financial year (2022/23). This would rise to o £18.4m in 2023/24 and £18.8m in 2024/25.

Bradford Council to spend £3m on new children's home and £900k on electric cars

His report to the Executive said this was “largely as a result of the cost of inflation and demographic growth exceeding growth in Council Tax, Business Rates and other resourcing.”

He added: “This is a substantial budget gap, but nothing over and above what we’ve experienced in previous years.

“There has been no clarity from the government on the local government settlement, although it seems Government funding for Councils will be on par with previous financial years.”

His report said this gap would have to be filled by either making savings and cuts elsewhere in the budget, additional income through raising costs or by dipping into emergency reserves.

Cllr Hinchliffe said there was increasing pressure on Council services - pointing out that the number of child protection investigations being handled by the Council had more than doubled in the past decade.

She added: “This is with diminishing funding from Government.”

Referring to the debate over how social care will be funded in the future she said: “It is frustrating that when people talk about this they don’t acknowledge that much of it is a Council service. A huge amount of spending comes from the Council. Over 60 per cent of Council tax in Bradford goes on children’s social car and adult social care.

Councillor Sarah Ferriby, Executive for Families, said: “We’ve been asking Government for appropriate funding for adult social care for a significant amount of time. It is something that should have been sorted by Government before now.”

Referring to the uncertainty of planning future budgets the report to the Executive said: “The unknown ongoing impact of Covid 19 coupled with increasing demands on Council services, and several fundamental reforms being proposed to Council funding where little detail is currently known, makes financial planning extremely difficult.”

Councillor Mike Pollard (Cons, Baildon) said there was a “large area of uncertainty” when it came to the report, adding: “These uncertainties are so great they render this report rather futile.”

Cllr Hinchliffe said: “There are a lot of unknowns, but it would be a dereliction of our duty if we didn’t make sure we were looking ahead. We are funding services all our residents rely on on a day to day basis.”

The Council will draw up its 2022/23 budget in the Winter.