Urgent action has been promised to head off a budget crisis within Enfield Council's social services department.

Estimates have shown the department is in danger of overspending by £3 to £4 million this financial year.

Labour's Cllr Brian Barford, lead member for social services, has now agreed to set up a high level review team to tackle the problem.

Its aim is to protect vital services while looking at ways to reduce costs and improve efficiency within the department.

Social services has a total budget of £60 million and Cllr Barford has pledged to closely monitor its system of working.

One suggestion is to plan social services spending over three years instead of the current 12 months.

A source within the Civic Centre revealed: "Cllr Barford is going to be tough but fair.

"He won't flinch from taking difficult decisions to solve the problems."

But Conservatives claimed mistakes by the ruling Labour group were behind the current financial problems.

And Tory leader Cllr Terry Neville said the authority was facing further £15 million cuts in its services to

balance the books in the next financial year.

He said: "This is just the tip of a very large iceberg of financial mismanagement by the Labour council over the past four years.

``It was elected on the basis of Prime Minister Tony Blair's popularity, rather than its stewardship of the borough's finances.''~

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