Worcestershire County Council

Worcestershire's Exceptional Financial Support was agreed in principle in February 2026, placing it among the councils the government allows to use borrowing or asset sales to meet day-to-day costs. On 18 August an external assurance review by CIPFA, published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, found the council does not anticipate exiting that support before 2028 at the earliest. That means at least two more budget rounds under government supervision. Two other reviews published in the same batch set no such date.

The council's leadership names only two pressures. In a statement dated 18 August, its Leader and Deputy Leader said every department is spending within budget except adult social care and children's support. The law makes both statutory duties, so the council cannot scale them down by decision.

Worcestershire's Dedicated Schools Grant deficit stood at £181m in the 2025-26 outturn, the fifth largest among the 292 councils that returned data, behind Hampshire, Surrey, Norfolk and West Sussex. A statutory override, extended in June 2025 by two years to 2027-28, keeps such deficits off council accounts until then.

On 17 September 2026 the government promised a grant covering 90% of schools deficits held at 31 March 2026. On those terms Worcestershire would still carry about £18m of its £181m itself. That residue lands on a council whose general budget already depends on emergency support, and whose care services are its only overspending departments.