Issue - meetings

Report CS14070

The Committee received the latest budget monitoring report based on activity up to the end of July 2014. There were significant cost pressures in adult’s and children’s placement budgets and housing temporary accommodation. Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DOLS) had also become a major issue; following the Supreme Court judgement in March, applications for assessment had risen dramatically (15 in 2013/14, 138 between April and June 2014) with no additional funding being available from central government. Each application required assessment by a range of social care and medical staff, and was personally read by the Executive Director. The Executive Director expected the numbers of applications to plateau eventually, but this was already a significant pressure on the budget.

The Executive Director summarised the budget issues facing the portfolio, and the actions being taken to address these by his senior management team. He emphasised how difficult it was, with all the efficiency savings that had been made in recent years, to find additional efficiency savings and  radical decisions would need to be taken by Members. The Portfolio Holder added that the Department had been remarkably efficient in recent years, and that further opportunities for major efficiencies were just not there. In recent years commissioning had provided significant savings to offset anticipated overspends, but he felt that there was not much scope for further savings through commissioning.  

With regard to the Welfare Reform Grant, it was noted that the Council would be working through a range of voluntary sector groups already active in this area; it was difficult to itemise exactly what the funding would be used for.

A Member asked for more detail on the pressures around Extra Care Housing. There had been a fairly consistent level of voids at around 30, indicating a small over-supply of places, whereas most boroughs had waiting lists. The Executive Director confirmed that there was possibly a need to re-allocate a number of beds for alternative uses, and a report would be prepared on this.

RESOLVED that

(1) The report and in particular the following be noted –

(a) The latest projected budget overspend of £2,890,000 forecast on the controllable budget, based on information as at July 2014;

(b) the full year effect for 2015/16 of £4,464,000 as set out in section 4;

(c) the new funding and carry forward requests as detailed in section 7 and agreed by the Executive on 10^th September 2010;

(d) the comments of the Executive Director in section 10.

(2) The Portfolio Holder be recommended to approve the latest budget projection for the Care Services Portfolio.