To consider the contents of the draft budget 2025/26 initially noted and endorsed at Cabinet on 3 December 2024.
The Committee have chosen at this meeting to focus on scrutiny of the pressures and proposed budget reductions and income proposals in Childrens and Adults Services.
The Committee may need to consider excluding the public and press in accordance with Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, should it wish to discuss specific exempt proposals.
Any recommendations the Committee may formulate from this item will be included in the Committee’s report on draft budget proposals which will be presented to Cabinet and Council in February.
Minutes:
The Committee recommenced its scrutiny of the 2025/26 Draft Budget, with this meeting dedicated to pressures, budget reductions and income proposals in Childrens and Adults Services. In order that the Committee were able to discuss exempt annexes, the Chair proposed that the public and press be excluded in accordance with Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 with a commitment that the recording of the meeting would be reviewed and any non-exempt sections released to the public.
The motion was seconded by Councillor Cannon and agreed unanimously by the Committee.
The following minutes reflect the items discussed which were subsequently identified as being non-exempt and therefore able to be released to the public.
Discussions were held on the following proposals:
S25-5N Provider Services (800k in 2025/26 and 700k in 2026/27)
The Committee noted that there was limited information available in the papers as to the breakdown of this saving which amounted to £1.5 million over two financial years and their need to understand what impact, if any, this would have on services provided to the public and the achievability of these reductions. The Director of Adult Services responded that at the time of drafting there were still works ongoing to identify the detailed breakdown. She outlined the three component parts contributing towards the saving and advised the Committee of the range of options proposed for sheltered housing staffing which were the subject of a two-part consultation of residents to identify the preferred option.
The Committee heard that three options had been proposed to residents which were maintaining the current level of staffing and increasing the charge to approximately £24 a week, a shared model with a cost of roughly £11 a week or stopping the service entirely. The Director of Adult Services advised that all three of these options would achieve the saving of £400k over the two financial years which was attributed to this section of the saving. Following questions from the Committee she advised that the result of the consultation was expected to be communicated to the approximately 850 tenants in February and then a staff consultation would commence on the preferred option.
Members of the Committee requested that in future years consideration was given to breaking down savings that spanned multiple service areas into distinct lines in the draft budget to increase transparency and facilitate the scrutiny of such proposals.
Following questions from the Committee the Director of Adult Services confirmed that the charge of roughly £11 a week was comparable with the current charge to tenants but that charges to residents varied based on the amount of subsidy they were entitled to. The Committee requested that they receive a copy of the consultation material shared with tenants of sheltered housing schemes.
S25-8N Young People’s Substance Misuse Service (50k)
Members of the Committee were informed that this funding from the Public Health Grant was being used to offset the corresponding pressure in Childrens Services as a result of demand for places in the Family Drug and Alcohol Court team being higher than the current team budget.
OP25-1L Rough Sleeper Male Shelter (337k in 2025/26 and 380k in 2026/27)
The Committee queried the inclusion of this item as a one-off pressure due to the need to support rough sleepers. The Director of Adult Services responded that the facility at the Old Bus Station had been funded short-term and other premises were being considered for this use which would allow a move from shared accommodation to single rooms and therefore potentially be eligible for government grant funding moving forwards. In response to a question by the Committee, the Director of Finance and Resources clarified that the Council did not yet know what conditions were stipulated for the additional funding secured under the Homeless Prevention Grant and the grant funding being discussed was a different funding stream for which councils had to submit bids when they fulfilled a certain set of criteria that the current provision at the Old Bus Station did not meet.
P25-8N Block Care Home Contract (685k in 2025/26) and P25-9N Block Care Home Contract (offsetting pressure)
The Committee noted that these two pressures offset each other and queried what developments had occurred that required their inclusion in the budget. The Director of Adult Services advised that these pressures related to a 30-year contract of which there was nine years remaining and due to fluctuations in the market there had been two care homes which had come into financial difficulties. The Lead Finance Officer for Adults clarified that the Market Sustainability Grant received by the council which was used for this purpose had seen an increase of £600,000 in 2024/25 so this meant that no funds were being taken from other sources to cover this expense.
S25-15N Business and Administration Review (625k)
The Committee asked for assurances that there would be no impact to the service by this reduction of 15 full-time equivalent staff. The Director of Childrens Services advised that there had historically been a large number of business administration staff concentrating on minuting meetings, preparing case files for court cases and producing statutory returns and there had been a number of developments in this space with AI being able to significantly reduce the time needed to complete these tasks. He added that the service did not receive the same volume of phone calls as previously and this also contributed to the reduction in need for business administration staff. Members of the Committee asked about the measures being undertaken to test the software in advance of full implementation and the level of risk associated with any failure. The Director of Childrens Services advised that testing had commenced and discussions had been held with other local authorities who had previously implemented this approach and it was felt that the level of risk associated with this practice was able to be mitigated.
P25-23N Educational Psychology (714k)
The Committee heard that educational psychology was a function that had to be provided by all local authorities and there was a nationwide shortage of qualified educational psychologists which meant that often the council had to pay high agency fees for the work to be completed. The Head of Finance advised that this was rated as red risk partly due to the demand for the service but also due to the significant difficulty in recruiting leading to a reliance on the private sector.
P25-13L Children with Disabilities (1.067m)
The Director of Childrens Services acknowledged the increased number of children with disabilities and the higher number of children with complex needs coming into the service. He added that additional respite care for parents with children with disabilities had been introduced with two teams providing more bespoke packages to cater to specific needs of families.
S25-10L School Improvement Service (165k)
It was noted that the council would no longer receive School Improvement and Brokerage Grant funding and therefore to continue the council’s work in this area schools had been consulted on meeting the cost of delivery of school improvement works as part of a traded service offer which would need to be reviewed annually. The Director of Childrens Services advised there was a high level of confidence in this regard for the upcoming financial year but further changes may arise as a result of new government legislation.
P25-27N Family Time Staffing (116k)
Members of the Committee queried whether the council had sufficient staffing and available buildings to facilitate the higher level of demand for supervised court directed contact. The Director of Childrens Services responded that discussions had been held with judges about the higher levels of court directed contact which could present difficulties if children were placed out of area. He also highlighted the need for the spaces used for this contact to be family-friendly and have reasonable capacity.
S25-13N Youth Services Restructure (241k)
The Committee heard that there would be a reduction of youth workers as there had been a marked reduction in the amount of funding in this area allocated directly to the council in favour of grant funding being available to the third sector. The Director of Childrens Services added that the council would continue to support organisations working in this sector but was cognisant that it was unlikely to be possible to continue providing direct youth work services.
P25-15L Children’s Social Care – External Fostering Placements (2.365m)
Following a question from the Committee the Director of Childrens Services advised that it was felt unlikely that the need for external fostering placements would reduce significantly in the short-term as it was likely that children in residential placements would be stepped down into fostering placements and there remained a difficulty in recruiting in-house foster carers. He added that there remained a high level of volatility across the care system and that time had been dedicated to ensuring that the modelling used was as accurate as possible to predict when there might be increases in demand.
S25-11N School Travel Support (50k)
The Committee heard that funding for post 16 school travel would be subject to a new policy which would mean that a higher threshold would need to be met before funding was granted to parents. Concerns were expressed about the impact this could have on families and the lack of scrutiny of the new policy thus far.
The Committee agreed that the meeting scheduled for the 14 January would be used to consider any remaining pressures and to agree a set of recommendations for inclusion in the report to be presented to Cabinet and Council in February 2025.
RESOLVED –
1. That the public and press be excluded from the meeting by virtue of Paragraph 4 (Information relating to any consultations or negotiations, or contemplated consultations or negotiations, in connection with any labour relations matter arising between the authority or a Minister of the Crown and employees of, or office holders under, the authority) of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, in order that the meeting may consider specific exempt business cases included within the 2025/26 Draft Budget.
2. That recommendations in relation to specific items in the 2025/26 Draft Budget be included in the Committee’s report on the draft budget proposals which will be presented to Cabinet and Council in February 2025.
3. That the consultation material for residents of council-run sheltered housing schemes be circulated to the Committee.
4. That the Committee receive an update on the percentage reduction to the current youth service budget.
Supporting documents: