Agenda and minutes

The Chair welcomed the members of the press and public in attendance and advised that the press were recording, advising anyone who did not wish to be recorded to make that known.

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.

In accordance with the Council's Public Participation Rules, the Committee received and acknowledged oral representation from Si Johns (YMCA) on the Council’s budget, in particular its funding for homelessness work and the Homelessness Prevention Grant.

Overall Approach

The 2024/25 service area budgets will be scrutinised 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 and will produce an overarching set of recommendations.

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 make effective recommendations to Cabinet and Council.

The proceedings of all Scrutiny Committees will be livestreamed and publicised through normal channels.

The Council must have full regard to and consider the impact of any proposals, as set out in 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 presentations on any matter relating to the proposed budget, in line with the public participation scheme.

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 make recommendations on an overview of priorities and prospects.

At this meeting Cabinet Members/Directors / Heads of Services will report on

·         the Cabinet’s Target Budget for Services and likely implications of the 2024/25 target for individual areas of service and how those areas have been prioritised;

·         any comparisons between the current year and next year’s proposals for the 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 2024/25 Impact Assessment

Joint Report of the Joint Report of the Director of Finance and Public Value, the Director of Integrated Adult Social Care and the Director of Public Health, Communities and Prosperity (DFP/24/05) on the proposed budget for Integrated Adult Social Care and Public Health for 2024/25, attached.

For ease of reference: Integrated Adult Social Care (page 12); Public Health (page 22)

[NB: An overview of the impact assessments for all service areas entitled ‘Budget 2024/25 Impact Assessment’ has been made available to all Members of the Council so that Scrutiny Committees have access to all assessments undertaken as part of the budget’s preparation - available at https://www.devon.gov.uk/impact/published/budget-impact-assessments/).

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 equalities for this (and other) budget meetings prior to making any decisions.  Scrutiny Committees will no doubt wish to be assured that risk assessments and projections  ...  view the full agenda text for item 146.

(Councillors J McInnes and C Leaver attended in accordance with Standing Order 25 and spoke to this item with the consent of the Committee).

Councillor Martin Wrigley declared a personal interest by virtue of being the Leader of Teignbridge District Council.

Councillor Ian Hall declared a personal interest by virtue of being the Co-Chair of the One Eastern Devon Partnership Forum; a member of the Eastern Locality Mental Health Partnership; and the Devon County Council representative of the Council of Governors of the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

The Committee noted that the proposed budget for the 2024/25 financial year would be scrutinised by individual Scrutiny Committees.

The Chairs of the Children’s Scrutiny Committee and the Health and Adult Care Scrutiny Committee would present an overview of resolutions 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 will 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 any recommendations to Cabinet and Council.

The Committee then considered the joint report of the Director of Finance and Public Value, the Director of Integrated Adult Social Care and the Director of Public Health, Communities and Prosperity (DFP/24/05) on the provisional financial settlement made by Government and the spending targets set by the Cabinet for each service area which included inflation, commitments and any service reductions. The Report also detailed the proposed medium-term capital programme for the Integrated Adult Social Care Service and how it was funded. It was also clarified to the Committee that Public Health was entirely funded through a grant from Government.

The Cabinet, at its meeting of 10 January 2024, had set Revenue Budget targets for 2024/25. That Report had presented the proposed service budget targets for 2024/25 totalling £743.4 million, a net increase of £43.8 million or 6.3% compared to the 2023/24 adjusted budget.

In terms of the Budget for 2024/25, inflationary pressures continue to be felt across the economy, local government and partners and social care was particularly impacted by increases to the national living wage. Senior Leadership Team had worked extensively to develop plans to manage net service costs within affordable financial targets in light of local authorities across the country continuing to face financial challenges due to high inflation and interest rates as well as demands on local service provision.

To enable the authority to set a balanced budget, savings, alternative funding and additional income of £49.6 million had been identified. Overall, there was additional funding of £43.8 million or 6.3% for services next year.

It was not currently planned to support  ...  view the full minutes text for item 146.