And they said part of the blame was down to not shutting primary schools – they’re closing three in West Fife, Wellwood, Pitcorthie and Crombie, this summer – fast enough.

The adults and older people social work service is going to be £7.592m in the red by the end of the month, while the 2014-15 year-end position for education and children’s services will be £6.276m overspent.

A report highlighted the problems in the education budget and said, “The main variances are a projected overspend in energy costs of £733,000, an overspend of £434,000 arising from savings from school closures being delayed until 2015-16 and PPP1 costs being higher than anticipated by some £221,000.” Craig Munro, director of education and children’s services, added, “The approved savings in relation to school rationalisation are not likely to be achieved this financial year as the whole process including call-ins, the statutory consultation processes etc has taken longer than originally planned.

“However, the service is in the process of closing schools and some savings in relation to property costs may be achieved before 31st March 2015.” He added that the overspend on the PPP1 contract with Pinnacle was down to additional payments relating to increases in energy costs.

Fife Council’s education, social and communities scrutiny committee heard last week about the financial position of the two services, predicted to be a total of £13.868m overspent by the end of this month. In the education and children’s services budget, the council said they could not carry out all the tasks they needed to do with the money available.

Mr Munro said, “The service requires to discharge its duty as corporate parent to all looked-after children and to support their families accordingly.

“This cannot be achieved within the budget approved by the council for 2014-15, however, the directorate is committed to proactive management of the budget to reduce the current projected overspend whilst managing the risk to individuals.” On the children and families side of the service, there was a projected overspend in child purchased placements of £8.564m.

Mr Munro said, “As previously reported, the children and families service is facing significant challenges relating to the increasing numbers of looked-after children and the associated demand for formal purchased care placements.” There were underspends in other areas which reduced the overall overspend for the service and measures to try to cut costs and make more savings in both services.

On the social care side, soaring demand and an ageing population with more complex needs has proved a huge financial headache.

Within Fife’s older people’s service, the report said they’d had to spend £1.961m more on care packages than expected – the equivalent of 281 full year placements – and £1.11m more on in-house provision.

Higher than expected costs for residential, nursing, respite and intermediate care, as well as increased staff costs, contributed to the problem. In adult services, the main projected overspend of £2.98m was on adult placements and £525,000 on transport of clients.

Sandy Riddell, director of health and social care, said in his report that the financial picture could even get worse, “Given the demographic challenges in year to date, it is likely that demand will increase during the remainder of the financial year at a faster rate than that assumed in the financial projections.” And he added, “It will not be possible to eliminate the overspend in the current financial year without a significant reduction in service that would result in an unacceptable level of risk.”