Surrey County Council has been given an extra £4 million to cope with winter health pressures.

The extra money for adult social care has been dished out from central government as part of its Budget promises in October for adult social care.

But the money for Surrey came with the condition it must be spent with health colleagues.

Subsequently Surrey County Council has agreed to use £1.4m for winter pressures across the whole system in the county and to keep £2.6m as a “contingency”.

Kevin Kilburn, SCC deputy chief finance officer, laid out how the extra £4m will be spent at the corporate overview committee meeting on Thursday, December 13.

He said: “The remainder £2.6m is being held as a contingency against winter pressures. If the pressures increase we have got the extra funding up to £2.6m to act as a buffer on that. If it’s not used that will be a saving in this year.”

The update came as part of a report into budget savings for the council.

He said £29m of £40m savings set out in September had been met due to “management actions undertaken”.

Mr Kilburn added: “The impact of that is that rather than using £21m of reserves to support the budget we will be using £13m so in effect it is an £8m saving. However despite the good news there are still quite significant budget pressures and challenges the council faces.”

He said £6.6m of the SEND £15m savings plan was high risk, of which £3m they “assume they will not achieve”. He said they were still aiming to achieve it however.

Council leader Tim Oliver’s newly formed Cabinet will discuss October’s monthly budget report at its meeting at 2pm on Tuesday, December 18.