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 2022/23 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 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 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 2022/23 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 2022/23 Impact Assessment

Joint Report of the Director of Finance, the Chief Officer for Adult Care and Health Services and the Director of Public Health (DF/22/02), attached. .

[NB: An overview of the impact assessments for all service areas entitled ‘Budget 2022/23 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/budget22-23/

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 meeting prior to making any decisions.  Scrutiny Committees will no doubt wish to be assured that risk assessments and projections are adequate and that the evidence supports  ...  view the full agenda text for item 27.

(Councillor J McInnes attended in accordance with Standing Order 25(1) and spoke to this item in regard to the Health and Adult Care budget proposals and referred to the impact of the pandemic over the last year and more, the difficulties and implications for the next 12 months and the severe pressures faced by the Service).

The Committee welcomed the opportunity for individual Scrutiny Committees to scrutinise the proposed budgets for the 2022/23 financial year.

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 on 27 January 2022.  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 the Chief Officer for Adult Care and Health Services; and the Director of Public Health (DF/22/02) 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 prioritisation reductions. The Report also detailed the proposed medium-term capital programme for the Adult Care and Care Services and how it was funded.

The Cabinet, at its meeting of 8th December 2021, had set Revenue Budget targets for 2022/23. That Report outlined the targets in paragraph 2 which represented an overall increase of £48.9 million or 8.4%. The increased Revenue Spending Targets for 2022/23 now totalled just over £629 million.

As detailed within budget monitoring reports, significant pressures had been and were continuing to be experienced within Devon and across the Country. The unprecedented set of circumstances faced by the Country had led to demand growth, cost base increases and acute labour shortages. Adult Care and Health and Children’s services in particular were continuing to experience in year operational pressures and many of the current year pressures were translating into budget pressures for 2022/23.

It was proposed to further support time limited pressures, invest to save programmes and to provide the critical services with time to manage demand and transform further by utilising some of the Council’s reserves.

The Capital Programme for 2022/23 to 2026/27 would be presented to Cabinet at the February Budget meeting.

At the Cabinet meeting on the 12th January 2022, an update had been given following the Provisional Local Government Settlement 2022/23 which had been received on the 16th December 2021. The 2022/23 local government finance settlement was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 27.