Agenda and minutes

Items which in the opinion of the Chairman should be considered at the meeting as matters of urgency.

There was no item raised as a matter of urgency.

Members of the public may make representations/presentations on any substantive matter listed in the published agenda, as set out hereunder, relating to a specific matter or an examination of services or facilities provided or to be provided.

There were no oral representations from members of the public.

Overall Approach

The 2020/21 budget proposals will be scrutinised with consideration of relevant service area budgets by Scrutiny Committees with the Corporate Infrastructure and Regulatory Services Scrutiny Committee considering both its own budget responsibilities as well as any issues raised by the Children’s Scrutiny Committee and the Health and Adult Care Scrutiny Committee, to produce a single set of recommendations from all Scrutiny Committees.

This approach enables all Scrutiny Members to question and challenge the budget proposals across services, to better understand the implications of the budget proposals across the Council and to speak with one voice to make effective recommendations to Cabinet and Council.

The proceedings of all Scrutiny Committees will be webcast and publicised through normal channels including Twitter and Facebook.

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 risks and mitigation action required.

Public Participation

There will be an opportunity for members of the public to address each Scrutiny Committee meeting and make oral representations/presentations on any matter relating to the proposed budget, in line with the public participation scheme.

This Meeting

At this and other Scrutiny Committees in the current cycle, Members are asked 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.

At this meeting Chief Officers/ Heads of Services will report on

•           the Cabinet’s Target Budget for Services and likely implications of the 2020/21 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; and

•           impact assessments undertaken in relation to the draft budget.

Report and Budget 2020/21 and Impact Assessment

Joint Report of the County Treasurer, the Chief Officer for Adult Care and Health Services and the Chief Officer for Communities, Public Health, Environment and Prosperity on the proposed budget for Adult Care and Health; and Public Health for 2020/21, to FOLLOW.

[NB: An overview of the impact assessments for all service areas entitled ‘Budget 2020/21 Impact Assessment’ has been made available to all Members of the Council so that Scrutiny Committees have access to all equality impact assessments undertaken as part of the budget’s preparation which will be available at https://www.devon.gov.uk/impact/budget-2020-2021/. Members are asked to consider the contents and retain it for future meetings, accepting that individual assessments may be updated with time.  Members must have full regard to and consider the impact of any proposals in relation to  ...  view the full agenda text for item 166.

(Councillor A Leadbetter attended in accordance with Standing Order 25(1) and spoke to this item in regard to Health and Adult Care budget proposals). 

The Committee welcomed  the proposed budget for the 2020/21 financial year which was being scrutinised by individual Scrutiny Committees.

The Chairs of the Children’s Scrutiny Committee and the Health and Adult Care Scrutiny Committee would present any relevant resolutions and an overview of those issues arising to the Corporate Infrastructure and Regulatory Services Committee.  This Committee would  also consider the draft budget proposals within its own remit, providing an opportunity for Scrutiny Members to comment on proposals for the Council’s Budget in its entirety. The resulting resolutions from Scrutiny would be reported to Cabinet and Council.

This would follow the opportunity for individual Scrutiny Committees – 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 Corporate Infrastructure and Regulatory Services Committee for incorporation into recommendations to Cabinet and Council.

The Committee then considered the Joint Report of the County Treasurer, the Chief Officer for Adult Care and Health Services and the Chief Officer for Communities, Public Health, Environment and Prosperity (CT/20/03) on the 2020/21 Budget which included sections on the Provisional Local Government Settlement made by Government and the budget targets set by the Cabinet for each service area which included inflation, commitment and savings. The Report also detailed the proposed medium-term capital programme for the Adult Care and Health and how it was funded.

The Cabinet, at its meeting of 11th December 2019, had set Revenue Budget targets for 2020/21 which totalled £529,974 millions. 2019/20 had been the last year of the four-year Local Government Financial Settlement and 2020/21 was hoped to be the first year of a new multi-year settlement that would contain the outcome of the Fairer Funding Review, the Business Rates reset and 75% or 100% Business Rates Retention, but this had not happened. In September, the Chancellor announced a one-year Spending Round (badged as a ‘Roll-forward’ for Local Government) but it did contain some proposals for additional funding including the SR19 Social Care Support Grant, Schools funding and SEND High Needs Block. The Fairer Funding Review along with both the Business Rates reset and Retention plans were delayed until at least 2021/22.

On the 20th December, the Secretary of State for the Ministry for Housing, Communities and

Local Government, Rt. Hon. Robert Jenrick MP, made a written statement to Parliament on the Provisional Local Government Finance Settlement 2020/21. This was as expected and gave an opportunity to increase the Spending Targets that were previously set. The settlement was for one year only. The targets were revisited by the Cabinet on 15th January 2020.

In relation to Council Tax, the referendum limit was 2% with social care authorities allowed a 2% social care precept. The three elements of the Business Rates Retention system (Baseline Need, NNDR Baseline and Tariff/Top Up  ...  view the full minutes text for item 166.