Issue - meetings

Report CSD16156

The Committee scrutinised the following reports on the Part 1 agenda for the Executive’s meeting on 30^th November 2016.

(5)  Budget Monitoring 2016/17

Report FSD16069

The Committee considered the second Budget Monitoring report for 2016/17, which was based on expenditure and activity levels up to the end of September 2016. The report highlighted significant variations which would impact on future years and early warnings that would have an impact on the final year end position. A net overspend on services of £7,377k was forecast.

The Committee discussed the need for better modelling of future demand. The Council’s approach was based on a four year financial forecast, converting projections of demand into expected levels of activity and taking measures to mitigate the anticipated pressures. Growth proposals were only considered once all mitigation measures had been investigated by the service, and provision was made for risk and uncertainty.

The Committee commented on the following issues –

(a) SEN Transport

The main cost pressure in the Education Portfolio was SEN Transport services with a projected overspend of £1.2m; the Committee noted that there was also a report on the Executive’s agenda on the procurement of an additional Framework SEN Transport contract. Modelling of future demand was becoming much more critical, and specific work was being carried out by the Director of Commissioning with senior managers to understand what was driving the pressures and how services needed to be adapted and markets developed. One factor was that the cost of transport exceeded the cost of the placements in around half of cases, so greater account needed to be taken of this. However, there was a difficult balance to be found between minimising costs and maintaining the Council’s statutory duties by meeting the needs of specific children for very specialist provision. Some Councillors argued for better utilisation of vehicles (including buses used for adult clients) and better coordination of routes, including increased cooperation with other authorities.  It was suggested that removing the branding of vehicles might help with this, and that contractors should have a role in proposing innovation. 

The introduction of a National Funding Formula for education would have an impact by reducing flexibility and funding for high needs would go down by about £2m, requiring SEN placements to be funded through Council Tax for the first time. A Member commented that many schools were not able to recover the full cost of 1:1 provision and that in future academies might not be able to continue with this. 

Members asked for an update on progress in completing the new Education Health and Care Plans for each child. This was a major task and the Council had three years to complete the programme; it was understood that this was on target. These comprehensive plans would make it easier to discuss the overall needs of children with parents.  It was confirmed that where substantial compensation payments had been made to families to provide for the needs of individual children this could not be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 382