SOUTHAMPTON'S Social Services chiefs could be in the red by more than £1.4m by the end of the financial year.

The black hole in the city's social services budget will be revealed at a meeting of the City Council's Cabinet today.

The "overspend" for social services, such as the costs of paying for children who are being looked after by local authorities outside Southampton, has pushed the budget into the red.

They say that even if they introduce a raft of cost-saving measures, the figure would only be halved and they could still be in the red by £700,000 by next March.

Measures being looked at include clamping down on the department's training budget, not filling some administrative posts and placing more children with carers in the city rather than sending them to other authorities.

Other departments may also be looked at to help make up the shortfall if the cash has still not been found at the end of the financial year.

Last week the Daily Echo revealed how the council had received a "two-star" or good rating from the government for its social services department. The ratings are published every year.

Other costs which are currently giving the council a financial headache in the run-up to the authority's first look at its budget proposals in mid December are about £225,000 which the council has had to pay out in redundancy costs.

The redundancy packages form part of the cost-cutting programme which city chiefs had to introduce as a result of budget savings in 2003.

Southampton City Council's Cabinet member for social care, Councillor Ann Milton, ruled out any cuts to frontline services to tackle the overspend.

She said: "It is normal for this time of year. We have obviously got an action plan to bring this into line and we should resolve this problem.

"We are not going to stop providing care packages.

There are no proposals for cuts to people out there."

Southampton City Council's director of social services, Dr John Beer, added: "This is a projected overspend and not the final position.

"As always, at this time of year, there is a projected overspend but departments manage to bring it in on target. There are no plans to make any cuts at all."