Issue - meetings

Report FSD19066

The Committee considered a report setting out the budget monitoring position for 2019/20 for the Adult Care and Health Portfolio based on activity up to the end of May 2019.  The current position was a projected overspend of £666,000 on the controllable budget.  Some of the main variances were outlined in the report and included: £590,000 overspend in Assessment and Care Management; £460,000 overspend in Learning Disabilities; £424,000 overspend in Mental Health; and £470,000 underspend in Better Care Fund (BCF) – protection of social care.

The Committee noted that the cost pressures identified were projected to impact in 2020/21 by £2,451,000.  Further growth of £2,431,000 for Adult Social Care had been assumed in the financial forecast (net of mitigation, and excluding the fall-out of Improved Better Care Fund (IBCF) funding; however, given the Council’s “budget gap”, which was projected to increase to around £32m by 2022/23, these growth items were currently unfunded.

Members noted the comments from the Director of Adult Social Care which were included in the report.  These comments highlighted that robust monitoring of all spend was in place and that a series of deliverable management actions for this financial year were being developed.  Action had already been put in place to reduce the ongoing pressure coming from the Discharge to Assess service.  Work had also begun to reduce reliance on short-term and agency staff to enable the service to improve delivery and provide consistent and good practice with an established staff group.  This would be underpinned by regular financial and performance scrutiny where managers would be held to account on a monthly basis.

Members noted that for 2019/20, the Winter Pressures Grant had been included within the enhanced health settlement for the NHS and the social care element of the grant had been built into the Portfolio Budget with no further funding expected.

Noting that in June 2018/19 there had been similar budgetary pressures, a Member suggested that for future reports it may be helpful to have a dashboard covering a 3 year period which would help the Committee to identify trends over a longer period.

RESOLVED: that the Portfolio Holder for Adult Care and Health be recommended to:

1. Note the projected overspend of £666,000 on controllable expenditure, based on information as at May 2019; and

2. Agree the release of amounts carried forward from 2018/19 as set out in section 3.6 of the report.