AS Worcestershire social services admits its spending is spiralling out of control, a group of councillors is to meet to discuss why the department finished the last financial year in the red.

Worcestershire's specific issues scrutiny panel will meet tomorrow to examine why social services overspent by £2.1m on its 1999/2000 budget, and how it will affect this financial year.

It has also been asked to look at whether director of social services Peter Gilbert's action plan to prevent the deficit happening again was "sufficient and appropriate".

Last week the county's chief executive Rob Sykes intervened after revealing social services is currently overspending by £4.6m.

Unless urgent cutbacks are ordered it will face the massive deficit at the end of the financial year next March.

The panel has already began to investigate last year's overspend, demanding answers from Mr Gilbert, currently on sick leave, and Worcestershire's director of financial services, as well as portfolio holder for social services, Councillor Peter Pinfield.

They heard early indications had suggested an overspend of just £300,000, but by March the scale of the problem was much more severe and in April/May the figure of £2.1m emerged.

They were told it was due to two main factors:

Some aspects of financial management in the department should have been more robust and databases detailing financial commitments were not given priority or kept sufficiently updated.

Worcestershire has more looked-after children than similar authorities, the cost of which puts pressure on spending in other areas of the service.

But the £2.1m overspend was balanced by savings made in other areas of the authority's work.

Some of the problems may have been due to staffing shortages. Vacancy levels have run as high as 28 per cent for a number of years due to a national recruitment and retention crisis, and Worcestershire's lower pay levels than similar authorities.

High vacancy levels and IT problems had contributed to problems in keeping databases updated.

The scrutiny panel also secured assurances the overspend would not happen again, thanks to better budget management.

Mr Gilbert vowed to reduce spending on children services by £0.9m - by cutting the number of children in care and improving administrative systems, reducing spending on adult services by £1.1m and cutting spending on support to operational services by £0.1m.

But five months into this financial year the department is on course for a £4.6m deficit.