Issue - meetings

Report CEF20043

The report considered the Portfolio Holder’s Draft 2021/22 Budget which incorporated future cost pressures and initial draft budget saving options which had previously been reported to Executive on 13^th January 2021. Members were requested to consider the initial draft budget being proposed and also identify any further action that might be taken to reduce cost pressures facing the Council over the next four years.

The views of each PDS Committee would be reported back to the next meeting of the Executive, prior to the Executive making recommendations to Council on 2021/22 Council Tax levels.  There were still outstanding issues and areas of uncertainty remaining. Any further updates would be included in the 2021/22 Council Tax report to the next meeting of the Executive.

The Head of Children’s Services Finance provided an overview of the report explaining that the overall Council budget was balanced for 2021/22 but that there was a deficit increasing into future years.  The report set out the growth and mitigation that would be put in place.  Transformation savings that were being undertaken by the Children, Education and Families Portfolio were also outlined in the report.  The Sub-Committee noted that there was a challenging financial backdrop and as a Local Authority Bromley was as economical and efficient as possible.

The Sub-Committee noted that prior to the meeting benchmarking data for Children’s Social Care Services across London had been circulated to Members of the Sub-Committee.  It was also noted that the Budget Task and Finish Group had carefully reviewed the benchmarking data.

A Member highlighted that the benchmarking data had been discussed at length at the Task and Finish Group.  Having considered the additional benchmarking data that had been provided, and the transformational savings identified by the Department, and the historic overspends on the Portfolio budget, the Task and Finish Group had felt that it would be appropriate to make a recommendation that there was a case to be made for a specific contingency for the Children, Education and Families Portfolio budget.  The purpose of the contingency would be to recognise that there could be unforeseen cases that could cost a lot of money and significantly impact on the budget.

The Chairman highlighted that the report needed to be considered in the context of the services being provided to children and families.  A budget report did not and could not reflect many of the additional services provided by Bromley that may not be provided by other boroughs, such as Staying Put and the support put in place for Care Leavers.  Not all Boroughs provided the services being provided by Bromley which enabled children and young people to have better lives and come out of the care system self-motivated.  In Bromley it was not simply a matter of looking at the bottom line, there was always a balance of quality against cost and this was something Bromley did very well.  Members discussed the benefits of the Caseload Promise which had delivered stability within the Children’s Social Care  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6