Agenda item

Overall Approach

In line with previous practice, the 2017/18 budget proposals will again be scrutinised collectively, with a joint session of Scrutiny Committees to be held on 30 January 2017, following preliminary consideration by individual Scrutiny Committees.

The joint session will, as before, enable all Scrutiny Members to critique, question and challenge the budget proposals across services, to better understand the implications of the budget proposals across the Council and to make more effective recommendations to Cabinet and the Council.  Additionally there will be an opportunity for members of the public to address that meeting and make oral representations/presentations on any matter relating to the proposed budget.

The Council must have full regard to and consider the impact of any proposals in relation to equalities prior to making any decisions, as set out in equality impact assessments, and any identified significant risks and mitigation action required. 

This Meeting

At this and other Scrutiny Committees in the current cycle, Members are asked, in advance of the Joint Scrutiny meeting, to identify salient issues within each Committee’s areas of responsibility, to examine the general thrust of the budget and take an overview of priorities and prospects as a means of informing discussion at the Joint Scrutiny meeting.   

At these meetings Chief Officers will report, inter alia, on:

·         the Cabinet’s Target Budget for services/suite of services;

·         how that compares to the target figure for 2016/17;

·         the likely implications of the 2017/18 target for individual areas of service (e.g. in percentage terms compared to current levels) and how those areas have been prioritised;

·         any comparisons between the current year and next year’s proposals for the major service areas, to illustrate the scale of change within those activities and how the budget has been allocated across services in those years (to illustrate changes of emphasis or priority);

·         any “alternative delivery models” or other initiatives contemplated for given services and how it is thought that these may reduce costs;

·         impact assessments undertaken in relation to the draft budget.

Questions

As in previous years, a dedicated electronic mailbox facility is available to Members to ask questions of fact or on the interpretation of budget papers, in advance of the Joint Scrutiny meeting, until 24 January 2017, details of which have been circulated previously. 

Report and Budget 2017/18 Impact Assessment

The Joint Report of the County Treasurer, Chief Officer for Adult Care and Health and Chief Officer for Children's Services (CT/17/04) on the proposed budget for People’s Services for 2017/18 is, attached.

[NB:

An overview of the impact assessments for all service areas entitled ‘Budget 2017/18 Impact Assessment’ has also been made available to all Members of the Council in order that Scrutiny Committees may have access to all necessary equality impact assessments undertaken as part of the budget’s preparation.  The document will also be available at:

https://new.devon.gov.uk/impact/published/budget-setting-201718/

Members are requested to familiarise themselves with its contents, retaining it for future meetings accepting that this is a dynamic process and individual assessments may necessarily be updated with time.  Members of the Council must have full regard to and consider the impact of any proposals in relation to equalities for the purpose of this and other budget meetings prior to making any decisions and any identified significant risks and mitigating action required.  Scrutiny Committees will no doubt wish to be assured that risk assessments and projections are adequate and that the evidence supports the assumptions made in the formulation of the budget.

Other Relevant Links: https://www.toughchoices.co.uk/; https://new.devon.gov.uk/impact/; https://new.devon.gov.uk/haveyoursay/]

(Councillor Barker (Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care & Health Services) and Councillor McInnes (Cabinet Member for Children, Schools & Skills) attended in accordance with Standing Order 25(2) and spoke to this item at the invitation of the Committee).

The Committee noted that, in line with previous practice, the proposed budget for the 2017/18 financial year would be scrutinised collectively, with a joint meeting of Scrutiny Committees to be held on 30 January 2017, providing an opportunity for Members to comment on proposals for the Council’s Budget in its entirety.  This would follow the opportunity for individual Scrutiny Committees - as at this meeting - to have an initial overview of the budget proposals and examine them to identify any specific issues or areas of interest that might be considered at the joint meeting referred to above for incorporation into any recommendations to Cabinet and Council.

The Committee then considered the Joint Report of the County Treasurer, the Chief Officer for Adult Care and Health and the Chief Officer for Children’s Services (CT/17/4) on the provisional financial settlement made by Government within the current and anticipated public sector funding regime and the spending targets set by the Cabinet for Adults and Children’s Services which included inflation, commitments and service prioritisation reductions.

The Report also contained the detailed budget proposals for Adult and Childrens Services, prepared in line with those targets, reflecting the different pressures and influences faced by services.  The proposed budget for Adult Care and Health Services of £216,493,000 incorporated inflation and commitments at £26,936,000 and required budget savings of £8,190,000; and the proposed budget for Children’s Services of £118,131,000 incorporated inflation and commitments at £7,843,000 and required budgets savings of £5,539,000. 

Members noted that overall, service inflation and commitments for the Council for the year were estimated at £43,026,000 and that to manage those combined pressures and set a budget within Government provisional targets, total savings of £22,229,000 would need to be found in the 2017/18 budget.  The announcement by Government on the final settlement and Council Tax Regulations was expected shortly.  

Officers, in commenting on the likely implications of the 2017/18 target budget, advised that the overall approach had been to strike a balance between the reality of austerity while protecting the most vulnerable.  The Committee recognised that there were significant financial pressures in the current year, especially within Adult Services, and that the costs to obtain sustainable care of the right quality had risen, particularly as a result of the national living wage, significant demographic pressures, increases in the number of care packages and in the unit costs for such packages.  Looked after children placements costs were similarly demand-led and increasing in number.  Nonetheless, the guiding principle had been to ensure that clients were supported in the care setting that most effectively maximised their independence and was underpinned by the general principle of promoting independence for people to stay in their home and in their community.

Members also noted the significant cost pressures relating to the High Needs Service largely due to increase demand where the cost of educating pupils with complex educational and physical needs could be significant and volatile.  Whilst additional funding had been made available within the proposed budget, management action was being taken to address the problem in the Dedicated Schools Grant, noting also that the deliverability of a balanced budget depended on successfully increasing capacity in maintained special schools and disinvesting from the more expensive independent sector.

The Report now before the Committee also referred to the Budget 2017/18 Impact Assessment, circulated prior to the meeting, giving an overview of the impact assessments for all service areas (available at: https://new.devon.gov.uk/impact/published/budget-setting-201718/ ), for the attention of Members at this meeting in order that they may be aware of the equality impact assessments undertaken as part of the budget’s preparation and that any risk assessments and projections were adequate and that the evidence supported the assumptions made in the formulation of the budget.   Acknowledging also that the preparation of Impact Assessments was necessarily a dynamic process and that individual assessments for specific proposals may necessarily have to be developed and updated with time, Members of the Council must have full regard to and consider the impact of any proposals in relation to equalities prior to making any decisions and any identified significant risks and mitigating action required. 

Specific issues and observations arising from the current budget proposals raised at the meeting included:

(i)      in relation to Adult Social Care:

·         noting the vagaries of a demand led service, acknowledging that there had been a 15% increase in Adult Social Care budgets over the last two years which, in parallel with the general aim of promoting independence for people to live more independent and fulfilling lives, would achieve best outcomes and achieve value for money;

·         acknowledged the certainty created in future expenditure with the recently agreed contract for Living Well at Home and the need to similarly review contractual arrangements for residential care in light also of revised standards of external assessment and the Council’s duty to ensure, inter alia, market sufficiency under Part 1 of the Care Act;

·         welcomed and endorsed the fact that the budget, as now proposed, was predicated on a 3% increase in the Social Care precept for 2017/18 and had been formulated so as to achieve required savings identified in the target budget and deliver services differently as outlined above; although it was accepted it was not possible to give a 100% guarantee that the budgets would be sufficient given the largely demand led nature of the services.

(ii)     in relation to Children’s Services:

·         that whilst acknowledging the overall 2% increase in Children Services budgets this was nonetheless against the background of significant savings required under the target budget;

·         the impact on the Council’s budget of any ‘perceived’ shortfall in government grant to fund directed activities such as Unaccompanied Asylum Seeker Children;

·         recognising the importance of adequate provision and integrated working to ensure support for vulnerable persons to maintain access to services (through children’s centres) acknowledging also the inherent value of informal contacts and networks and co-location of services and the vital need for appropriate checks and balances to reduce risk; and

(iii)    generally:

·       supporting the Council’s case for increased funding for education and social care services in rural areas like Devon.

The Committee were reminded that its consideration of the draft Adults and Children’s Services budget was just part of the process of setting the Council’s budget which, following this meeting and the further joint scrutiny session on 30 January 2017 would culminate in the Cabinet on 10 February 2017 formulating a budget for consideration by the County Council on 16 February 2017.

Members noted representations received about the possible reduction (of £5,000) in the budget for SACRE provided to Babcock plc under the Learning Development Partnership; the Head of Education and Learning having indicated her willingness to discuss the issue further with Babcock plc, if approached.

It was MOVED by Councillor Randall Johnson, SECONDED by Councillor Hannaford and

RESOLVED

(a) that the provisional financial settlement and its impact on spending targets and on the proposed People’s Services budget for 2017/18 be noted and the issues and/or observations set out above be drawn to the attention of the Joint Budget meeting on 30 January 2017; and

(b) that the Committee urgently conducts a Spotlight Review on options for Public Health Nursing Services and Integrated Childrens Services (Cabinet Minute *113/11 January 2017), to review options and report directly to Cabinet in March 2017.