Agenda item

2.15 pm

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 and Chief Officer for Communities, Public Health, Environment and Prosperity (CT/17/02) on the proposed budget for Public Health 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 Davis, Cabinet Member for Improving Health and Wellbeing, attended in accordance with Standing Order 25(1) 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 and Chief Officer for Communities, Public Health, Environment and Prosperity (CT/17/2) on the provisional financial settlement made by Government within the current and anticipated public sector funding regime and on the spending targets set by the Cabinet for all service areas, including inflation, commitment and service prioritisation reductions.

The Report contained the detailed budget proposals for all health and wellbeing services and in particular the proposed budget for Public Health - which would also be presented to Place Scrutiny Committee as part of that Committee’s consideration of budgets for Communities, Public Health, Environment & Prosperity services generally - prepared in line with those targets, reflecting the different pressures and influences faced by services.

The proposed budget for Communities, Public Health, Environment & Prosperity of £35,203,000 incorporated inflation and commitments of £2,468,000 and required budget savings of £576,000.  The ring fenced Public Health Services grant for 2017/18 was £28,238,000 being a shortfall of £714,000 (2.5%) over 2016/17. Future grant allocations were expected similarly to reduce by a further 2.6% year on year until 2020/21. This shortfall – which was for one year only -  had been offset by an  injection of funding from corporate resources because, in future years, changes would  be made to contracted services to bring the budget back into balance. The shortfall had been a direct consequence of the removal of £1,600,000  from the ring-fenced reserve by the Department of Health.

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. 

The Chief Officer for Communities, Public Health, Environment and Prosperity commented on the likely implications of the 2017/18 target for individual areas of service noting that the overall approach remained one of striking a balance between financial realities and ensuring the delivery of essential services. In order to achieve a balanced budget against the future forecast of reduced funding, there were plans for all key service areas to be re-procured during 2017/18 including Sexual Health Services, the integrated Children’s Service contract,  Public Health Nursing Services, substance misuse services and domestic violence services to make these services as efficient as possible and sustainable within allocated grant.  The demand on sexual health services continued to grow and substance misuse was the second largest single area of spend against the grant.  2017/18 would also see the re-introduction of the universal NHS Healthcheck programme and approaches were currently being explored to help ensure the most efficient form of delivery.

Members noted also that, since the County Treasurer’s Report had been published, confirmation had been received from  the Devon Safer Partnership that funding for the Devon Rape Crisis and North Devon against Domestic Abuse would again be available in 2017/18 and that the draft budget now submitted would be updated accordingly.

The Committee were reminded that its consideration of the draft budget now before it  was just part of the process of setting the County 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 budgets for consideration by the County Council on 16 February 2017.

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 the following, namely:

·         that the proposed budget did not differ markedly from the previous years,  there being no significant reductions or variations;

·         the historical low level of funding for public health in Devon (the 6^th lowest funded) and the adverse impact of any reduction thereto on the ability of the Council to deliver its statutory responsibilities;

·         the importance of the need for early intervention and improved public education to prevent health problems developing in the future.

It was MOVED by Councillor Westlake, SECONDED by Councillor Sellis, and

RESOLVED

(a) that the provisional financial settlement and its impact on spending targets and proposed budgets for 2017/18 be noted;

(b) that the draft Public Health Budget 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.