OVERSPENDS in children’s social care services have left a £5.2m black hole in Oxfordshire County Council’s books, a report warns.

Figures provided to senior councillors show the children, education and families directorate is forecast to have overspent by £7.2m in the 2016/17 financial year.

The next biggest overspend of any other department was £300,000, in corporate services, which was due to ICT projects.

An underspend of £2.2m was reported by environment and economy, the department responsible for roads.

It comes after previous warnings last year and in February that the council was on course to overspend by millions. Since February the figure has been reduced from £5.6m to £5.2m, the report said, through a recruitment freeze.

But it added: “It is anticipated the use of general balances will be required to bring the budget back into balance.”

Overspends in children’s services included £1.6m on school transport for pupils with special education needs and £3.9m in social care services.

The county council said this was after social care was provided with £1m from its department reserves and another £1m from the authority’s corporate contingency fund.

It said spiralling costs were being driven by continued high demand on services.