Issue - meetings

Report CS17109

The Care Services Portfolio Holder introduced a report setting out the budget monitoring position for the Care Services Portfolio based on expenditure to the end of December 2016.

The controllable budget was forecast to be in an overspend position of £4,657k following overspends across a range of services including Adult Social Care, Temporary Accommodation (Bed and Breakfast) and Children’s Social Care which was due to a number of reasons including higher than expected demand for services and the need for further efficiency savings to be identified.  It was proposed that the Portfolio Holder for Care Services approve the release of £31k from the Community Housing Fund which had been established to support local groups in delivering affordable housing aimed at first-time buyers.  It was also proposed that the Council’s Executive be requested to approve the release of £786k held in contingency to mitigate the impact of the National Living Wage on the cost of delivering some social care services and to cover the cost of goods purchased through the framework of providers of essential household items needed to meet the basic requirements of homeless people moving into settled accommodation.

In considering the report, the Chairman emphasised that budget holders’ comments in future budget monitoring reports should clearly outline the reasons for any over or underspend of a service’s budget.  The Chairman also requested that further details regarding reduced joint funding contributions for mental health care placements, which were currently projected to be overspent by £168k, be included in the next Budget Monitoring report to the Committee.

In response to a question from a Member, the Head of Education, Care and Health Services Finance confirmed that holding funds in contingency to mitigate the impact of the National Living Wage enabled the Local Authority to negotiate with contractors for the best price for the provision of care services.  Requests to release funding held in contingency were also subject to approval by the Council’s Executive which allowed an additional safeguard to ensure the effective use of funding.

With regard to the underspend in the Reablement Service, the Head of Education, Care and Health Services Finance reported this was mainly due to the difficulty in recruiting Direct Care staff.  The shortage of Direct Care staff was a national issue and the Local Authority continued to work with Bromley Clinical Commissioning Group to consider future recruitment models for this service.

In considering care leavers, the Interim Director: Children’s Social Care advised Members that a Leaving Care project was underway that would provide a full range of information to care leavers on the support they would be given, including any benefits they were entitled to.  In April 2017, Leaving Care Panels for care leavers aged 16+ years and 18+ years would be introduced to ensure that all care leavers had the support they needed.  A review would also be undertaken on the accommodation offer for care leavers to confirm it met the needs of care leavers and offered value for money, and a report  ...  view the full minutes text for item 79